Republican Marco Rubio Heading To Washington
MIAMI (CBS4) - Once considered a long-shot GOP candidate, former speaker of the Florida house Marco Rubio is now a U.S. Senator from Florida.
Rubio knocked off independent Florida governor Charlie Crist and Democrat Kendrick Meek in Tuesday's election.
His victory didn't surprise pollsters who had shown Rubio had a double-digit advantage. In the end, Rubio won with 49 percent of the vote trailed by Crist (30 percent) and Meek (20 percent).
During his victory speech Tuesday night, Rubio said it was quite the change from a year ago when he was barely even registering support.
"When you are 35 points down in the polls and the only people who think you can win live in your house, and four of them are under the age of 10, you better know why you are running," said Rubio. "I found strength in this campaign to keep moving forward."
Rubio declared his candidacy and received support from the so-called tea-party early in the campaign. He faced the tall odds of trying to knock off then Crist, who at the time was a Republican and considered a shoe-in for the Senate seat.
But Rubio immediately linked Crist to President Barack Obama over Crist's support of the stimulus, which brought enough money to save thousands of teachers' jobs during the height of the Great Recession.
However, President Obama's name has been a virtual dirty word for candidates across the country and Florida was no different. Rubio quickly began to eat away at Crist's lead and eventually overtook him and forced Crist out of the primary and eventually out of the Republican Party.
Crist declared an independent campaign and some politicos thought Crist would waltz into the Senate seat again by shaving off enough Democrats and Republicans to overtake Rubio. But, much like the GOP primary, Crist's independent campaign couldn't garner enough Republican support to overtake Rubio in the polls.
Democrat Kendrick Meek came from behind in the primary against billionaire Jeff Green, but he never polled anywhere but in dead last place in the general election. Meek and Crist essentially split the Democratic vote, which was more than enough for Rubio to win the election.
Meek took a veiled shot at Rubio in part of his post-campaign statement. "To my opponents, I congratulate them on their campaign. To Florida's Senator-elect Marco Rubio, I congratulate you on winning a plurality of the vote and standing on principle," Meek said.
