Florida Gov. Rick Scott declined to endorse Sen. Marco Rubio on Thursday, one day after the ex-White House hopeful reversed course by announcing he will seek Senate re-election.
Scott is instead standing by Florida businessman Carlos Beruff, whom he describes as “a good friend,” and encouraging him to remain in the Republican primary against Rubio.
“Carlos Beruff is a good friend of mine, a businessman and an outsider to politics,” Scott said in a statement posted to his Twitter account. “The voters of Florida deserve the opportunity to consider his candidacy alongside Senator Rubio and make their own decision.”
The Florida Republican compared Beruff’s candidacy to his own primary campaign against then-Attorney General Bill McCollum in the Sunshine State’s 2010 gubernatorial election.
“When I ran for office in 2010, I was a political outsider and the entire Republican establishment was against me. They already had their hand-picked candidate and it wasn’t me,” Scott said.
He added, “The opinions of the political class in Washington are not relevant to the voters of Florida. Florida Republicans will pick the nominee of their own.”
The comments from Scott, who also declined to endorse Rubio ahead of Florida’s presidential primary, strongly differ from the praise Rubio received on Wednesday from a handful of Senate Republicans.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters that Rubio’s decision would be “a great outcome” for Republicans who are looking to maintain the Senate seat. Meanwhile, the Florida GOP call Rubio a “bold leader who is focused on real solutions to the issues facing Floridians” and the National Republican Senatorial Committee declared its “full support” for the first-term senator.
A Vox Populi poll released Wednesday showed Rubio leading Florida’s GOP primary with 57 percent support. However, 34 percent of Republican voters remain undecided.
