US Senators McCain, Rubio win their Republican primaries
their Republican primaries Tuesday, setting up
high-profile re-election efforts in November as their
party fights to retain control of Congress.
Freshman lawmaker Rubio of Florida easily
defeated business executive Carlos Beruff, securing
around 72 percent of the vote and setting up a clash
with House Democrat Patrick Murphy.
The closely watched Florida matchup is considered
to be among those that could tip the Republican-
controlled Senate into Democratic hands in
November, especially if presidential hopeful Donald
Trump underperforms in the general election and
drags down other Republicans on the ballot.
About a third of the 100-member Senate and the
entire House of Representatives are up for grabs in
November.
Rubio, 45, was a rising Republican star whose
presidential bid fizzled in March when Trump, a
brash billionaire real estate mogul, thrashed him in
the Florida primary.
Rubio had pledged to return to private life, but
reversed course and launched his Senate re-election
bid, scaring nearly every challenger out of what
had been a crowded Republican field.
He called it “an unusual road back” to the Senate.
“But I just couldn’t be at peace with the idea that
we were going to not just potentially lose the Senate
seat but lose the balance of power in the Senate at
this critical moment in our nation’s history,” he told
supporters after claiming victory.
Veteran Senator John McCain of Arizona was
projected to handily win his contest against a more
conservative candidate and advance to the
November election.
“This one has a ways to go yet, and it’s not going to
get any easier,” he said in a victory speech.
Although his rival Kelli Ward, a former state
senator, is an avid Trump supporter, the Republican
nominee eventually backed McCain’s re-election
bid, depriving Ward of much-needed political
oxygen to mount a successful challenge.
She had argued that McCain, who turned 80 on
Monday, had grown too old and “weak” to serve
another six-year term.
McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee,
has spent three decades in the Senate. He was seen
as one of the senators most vulnerable to a
challenge by the far right, but ultimately prevailed
easily.
Tuesday also saw House Democrat Debbie
Wasserman Schultz, an embattled Florida
congresswoman who until recently chaired the
Democratic National Committee, survive a spirited
challenge.
She stepped down from leading the DNC in July
after leaked internal emails showed that members
of the organization, which pledges neutrality in
presidential primaries, favored Hillary Clinton this
year over her more liberal rival Bernie Sanders.
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