Although the 2016 Presidential Election has garnered much of the national spotlight, the Senate election in Florida is one of the most competitive in the country.
Republican incumbent Marco Rubio is running to keep his Senate seat after a failed Presidential campaign. He originally insisted that he would not run for re-election, but on June 22 he announced his intent to seek re-election for a second term in the Florida Senate.
Before facing Democratic opposition, Rubio led the race by winning the primary on Aug. 30. He was practically guaranteed the Republican nomination because all other competition dropped out with his announcement to run.
Although the Democratic primary was more competitive, Congressman Patrick Murphy will challenge Rubio.
Patrick Murphy is known as one of the more moderate congressmen in the country. He was a Republican prior to 2011, but switched parties due to his opposition to the Ultra Right Tea Party movement within the GOP. He has described himself as Pro Choice as well as an avid supporter of LGBT rights. When it comes to fiscal policy, Murphy tends to be much more moderate, (even Republican leaning in certain aspects) as he has described himself as someone who values fiscal responsibility.
Murphy has widespread support from much of the Democratic party, including president Barrack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. He also has the support of former Florida Governor Charlie Christ. Christ, just like Murphy, has realigned his political stances over the years.
Marco Rubio is the prototypical conservative both socially and fiscally. He has a 98.67% rating by the American Conservative union. He has described himself as pro-life and
expressed discord with Supreme Court decisions on same-sex unions. Although Rubio has shown strong dislike for much of Obama’s policies, he has recently broken away from much of his party’s views in his support of the President’s request for $2-billion funding for emergency spending toward preventing the spread of Zika. Despite this, he recently reaffirmed his pro-life stance even in the cases of a women exposed to the virus.
Although Rubio is up in virtually all of the recent polls by an average of 5.7%, the race has been deemed a toss-up by virtually every single publication. Rubio faces especially stout competition for an incumbent. Part of this is his late entry to the race in addition the fact that
his voting record in the Senate is less than stellar. The constituents’ distaste for his lackluster voting was shown in his Presidential race, as he lost his home state by over 18%.
The Senate race mirrors the current heated Presidential race. It was no surprise that both Rubio and Murphy easily won their Aug. 30 primaries and now have shifted their focus to attacking the opposing candidate. Voter turnout will be critical on Nov. 8.
