Florida Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, a friend of Sen. Marco Rubio who is running for his Senate seat, said Wednesday that nothing appears to have changed about Rubio’s decision to not run.
“I don’t have any indication that anything has changed,” Lopez-Cantera said in an interview on “Fox & Friends,” adding that Sunday’s massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando “affected us both, as fathers, as Americans, as Floridians.”
Lopez-Cantera’s comments come days after Rubio said in a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt that Sunday’s mass shooting made him think about public service and “where you can be most useful in your country.” Some saw that as a sign he might yet run, but Rubio also said running is not a plan he has made with his family.
Rubio declined to run for re-election this fall after his failed presidential bid.
The two friends “spent some time chatting together” Sunday in Orlando, Lopez-Cantera said, before “he left to drive himself back to Miami.”
“And we were both just affected by what we were witnessing there, this horrific and horrible tragedy. It makes anybody pause and think about their life, not just from a political standpoint, but from a human standpoint,” Lopez-Cantera explained.
Lopez-Cantera is one of five Republicans running to replace Rubio in the Senate. Rubio has been most supportive of Lopez-Cantera as of late, as he is set to help host a fundraiser for him on June 24.
Rubio has faced pressure from Republicans to seek reelection in hopes to keep his Senate seat with the GOP. In an interview Tuesday, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell said he hopes the party’s candidate in Florida “will end up being Marco Rubio.”
