The 2016 general election is finally at an end, but that doesn't mean politics are over. Floridians already know, but the rest of the U.S. has bee wondering: did Marco Rubio win his Senate seat, or was he ousted by Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy? The Associated Press reported at shortly after 8pm on Tuesday that Rubio was re-elected to his Senate seat.
Rubio was elected to represent Florida in the U.S. Senate in 2010, after 10 years in the Florida House of Representatives. After announcing his candidacy in 2015, the Republican hopeful dropped out of the presidential pool following the Florida Primary, which he lost to future GOP candidate Donald Trump. Rubio has been a vocal Trump supporter since.
Back in 2014, Rubio said he would not run for re-election to the Senate if he mounted a presidential bid in 2016, but he later reneged on that decision. It's possible that Rubio originally intended to avoid running afoul of Florida law, which prevents a candidate's name from appearing twice on a ballot. His decision to run for re-election was part of a clear strategy to secure a Republican majority in the U.S. Senate, however.
The senator's opponent, U.S. Representative Murphy, is a Republican-turned-Democrat who has served Florida's 18th district since 2013. According to Politico, Rubio "spent millions portraying ... Murphy as a rich kid, a lightweight, a résumé-inflater and a pushover [sic]." It seems to have paid off.
