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Are the Democrats Giving Up on Rubio’s Seat, Too?

By Chris Deaton

There’s more than one conspicuous absence from a list of top Democratic Senate targets published Friday, and it includes Florida.

A report from the Columbus Dispatch says the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is not circling the Ohio contest between Senator Rob Portman and former Democratic governor Ted Strickland for victory this November. The DSCC is focused on eight other races, the Dispatch writes—and they don’t include the race between Senator Marco Rubio and Florida Democratic representative Patrick Murphy, either. The Dispatch has more:

At a private meeting this week before a trade association in Washington, Tom Lopach, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, did not list the Ohio race as among the top eight races Democrats are focusing on. Instead, according to a source who attended the meeting, Lopach said Strickland could only win ” if a wave comes” in, a reference to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton winning by a strong margin in Ohio. … The states the DSCC is focusing most on are Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Missouri and North Carolina. Democratic victories in Illinois, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada and New Hampshire would all but guarantee they take control of the Senate.

Rubio entered the race to hang on to his seat late, but he has held a modest, steady lead in early polling. According to the RealClearPolitics average, he’s up between 4 and 5 percentage points. (Portman’s advantage is much larger—it’s stretched into double digits.)

The DSCC told the Miami Herald earlier in the week that it was delaying ad spending on the contest to “backload” its commitments. An official dismissed charges that Democrats were bailing on the race, saying it was “clearly” competitive and winnable.

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