Opponent: Rubio should pledge to skip 2020 presidential bid
Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.) is digging in on his criticism of Sen. Marco Rubio’s Senate attendance record, calling on the Florida Republican to pledge to not run for president again in 2020.
Murphy, who is running to unseat Rubio, sent the senator a pledge Tuesday “asking him to commit with me to be a full-time senator for six years.”
{mosads}”Senator Rubio is only using this Senate seat to pursue his personal political ambition, to abandon Floridians again to run for president in 2020,” the Democratic congressman told reporters. “This pledge is a commitment to Florida families that their candidates for the U.S. Senate will show up and work hard for all six years of their term.”
Rubio has come under fire from Democrats and some Republicans for missing Senate votes during his 2016 presidential campaign. Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called on Rubio to resign and to refund taxpayers for his salary.
The pledge, according to Murphy, says: “I pledge to serve full time in the U.S. Senate, serving a full six-year term from 2017 to 2023. I will not pursue higher office during that time, and I will show up and represent Florida to the fullest extent of my abilities for six full years.”
Murphy noted that he has already signed the pledge.
Though Rubio hasn’t ruled out running for president again in 2020, he told the Miami Herald last month that he isn’t planning another bid.
“If I was, I wouldn’t have run for the U.S. Senate. … I’ve basically gotten into one of the toughest races in the country, on almost the very last second possible,” he added. “With the reality that if I don’t win the election — losing two elections in one year has never been a goal of mine.”
Rubio led the Senate in missed votes last year. He has missed 37 of the Senate’s 134 roll call votes this year, according to GovTrack, most of them between January and March.
The Florida Republican has defended his record, noting he would return to the Senate for high-profile votes or when his vote could affect the outcome.
Murphy issued the pledge as lawmakers return to Washington Tuesday after a seven-week summer recess. Murphy joked with reporters that “this is probably Marco Rubio’s least favorite day of the year.”
“He’s got to go back to the Senate,” he added. “He has to pretend to care about representing Florida families.”
Olivia Perez-Cubas, a Rubio campaign spokeswoman, fired back at Murphy, saying he “should agree to debate this subject.”
“But because he was ranked one of the most ineffective members of Congress, has achieved nothing in four years as a congressman and holds radical liberal views about health care, the economy and national security, he is afraid to agree to multiple debates,” she said.
She added that Murphy’s “privileged upbringing has left him with a sense of entitlement, which is why he is often too busy spending time on his yacht in Nantucket instead of working in Florida.”
Rubio has proposed six debates. Murphy, asked about the debate schedule, said he’s “very excited to debate Senator Rubio multiple times” and has accepted one debate and plans to schedule more.
Republicans are defending 24 Senate seats in November, including a handful in states, like Florida, that awarded their electoral votes to President Obama. Democrats need to pick up five seats — or four if they also retain the White House — to win control of the Senate.
Rubio, who reversed course earlier this year and decided to run for reelection, is currently leading Murphy on average by more than 5 percentage points, according to RealClearPolitics.
–This report was updated at 1:05 p.m.
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