Marco Rubio seeks to dispel ghosts of presidential race in re-election bid

WASHINGTON — Florida Sen. Marco Rubio hopes next month's GOP Senate primary turns out better than his most recent election performance.

In March, Rubio lost his home-state presidential primary to a brash billionaire who labeled him "little Marco" and derided him for shirking his official duties. Even before he was drubbed by Donald Trump, now the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, by nearly 20 points, Rubio vowed not to seek re-election, and then changed his mind.

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Now, he faces another sharp-tongued maverick — developer Carlos Beruff — in a GOP primary race that could be key to deciding which party controls the Senate next year.

Rubio thinks he’s got a better chance this time.

“It’s a different race,” he said during an interview in his Capitol Hill office on Monday. “Going into the GOP (presidential) primary, my approval numbers among Republicans were always good. People just wanted something different for president than what I was offering. And that was true in Florida.”

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Rubio also says Trump had momentum from winning a slew of early primaries. Beruff doesn't have that edge heading into the Aug. 30 Senate primary. And while polls forecast Trump’s crushing win in the presidential primary, most surveys taken ahead of the Senate nominating contest show Rubio with a commanding lead.

In addition, party leaders and others who begged Rubio to reverse his initial decision not to run for re-election already have begun spending money to help him win.

Beruff, meanwhile, is ripping a page from Trump's playbook. He's hammering Rubio for the votes he missed while campaigning for president and is deriding him as a “no-show” around Florida, despite Rubio's nearly six years in office.

That criticism is leveled often at Rubio, 45, who lives in West Miami with his wife and four young children. Analysts say his perceived indifference to some parts of the state probably contributed to his dismal performance in the presidential primary, when he lost all but one of Florida’s 67 counties (Miami-Dade).

On Monday, Rubio  defended his record, saying he’s traveled extensively throughout the state on personal visits and official business going back to his time as speaker of Florida’s House.

“The difference is, once you’re elected in a state as large as Florida, three out of four weeks you’re in Washington doing the people’s work (and) the ability to travel as much as you do when you’re a candidate is diminished,” Rubio said. “But “we have deeply engaged in (many) issues, whether it’s the oystermen in Apalachicola Bay, Eglin Air Force Base or the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, (or) the cigar industry that’s being decimated in Tampa.”

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Beruff also dings Rubio for refusing to rule out a run for president in 2020, saying Florida deserves someone “who’s a true public servant focused on their needs rather than his own political ambition.”

Rubio said that, four months after his stinging defeat in the presidential primary, a presidential bid “is not what’s on my mind.”

For now, Rubio just wants to show he can rebound.

“Voters are capable of liking someone and supporting someone for Senate but deciding they want something different for president,” he said.