Senator and failed presidential candidate Marco Rubio said he’s not angling for a 2020 presidential run by deciding to run for re-election to the Senate. Call me skeptical.
“I didn’t run for the Senate to run for president again,” Rubio will say in a pre-taped segment for CBS’ “Face the Nation” that will air on Sunday.
Right, okay. Rubio then argued that this is what political experts would advise against.
“Any political expert would tell you this is not the right way to do it — expose yourself in another election, in a very unpredictable, to say the least, election cycle after saying you weren’t going to do it. It’s a tough election in a strong swing state,” he said.
“It’s not the safest route forward. I’m running for re-election because I’m going to be a senator,” he added. “I’m going to spend six years in the Senate making my mark on behalf of the people of Florida, but also on behalf of the things that are important for America.”
Mmmmhmmm. This coming from the guy who for months said he wasn’t going to run for re-election. He and his campaign kept claiming he was going to be a “private citizen” in 2017, as if any senator with the name recognition that he has and who made it as far as he did in a presidential race (with the way the media and especially social media are these days) could ever be just a “private citizen.”
But maybe Rubio is telling the truth at this time. Maybe he’ll change his mind later like he claims he did this time. (Or maybe it’s not a 2020 presidential run he’s after right now. Maybe, as I wrote back in March, he’s planning to run for Florida governor in 2018.)
His claims that political experts don’t think running for re-election to the Senate — which will be tough — is the safest route forward also seems fishy. If anything, it looks like the setup for an argument to run for president again. The more unlikely and difficult a re-election victory seems right now, the stronger it becomes (provided he wins) as a justification for him to run for president later on.
So no, I don’t buy that Rubio is only focused on the Senate and isn’t planning for higher office. But he has a decision to make about what path he takes before he runs for president again.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
