MSNBC reports that Marco Rubio has won the Florida Senate race, easily outpacing Democrat Kendrick Meek and Governor Charlie Crist, who ran as an independent after falling far behind Rubio in the primary.
Early results cited by MSNBC showed Rubio with 50 percent of the vote, Crist with 29 percent, and Meek with 21 percent. The race got an injection of last-minute drama this week after reports that former President Bill Clinton nearly secured a deal for Meeks to drop out of the race and endorse Crist.
Reuters columnist Joshua Spivak says Rubio “is the real big winner of the night.”
A former Speaker of the Florida House, Rubio was not carried by the Tea Party wave, he rode it. He challenged a popular sitting Governor in the primary and did not blink when faced with calls to pull out for the good of the party. Instead, he marshaled his forces, saw which way the political wind was blowing and destroyed Charlie Crist, not once, but twice.
The tight governor’s race between Republican Rick Scott and Democrat Alex Sink was still too close to call.
[Miami Herald], [Reuters]
