Carlos Lopez-Cantera Enters Senate Race, Takes Aim at Washington

Vowing to be “part of the solution, not part of the problem," Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera launched a bid on Wednesday for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by his ally U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. Rubio is not running for a second term as he aims for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. 

Lopez-Cantera unveiled a Web video in which he announced his bid and, as Rubio did in 2010, made the cases for American exceptionalism and claimed Washington, D.C., was broken. 

“As a family, we’ve decided that I’m running for the U.S. Senate so your kids, and mine, can continue to live in the kind of country that gave my family the blessings of liberty and freedom that only America offers,” Lopez-Cantera said in the video. “Both parties in Washington have lost sight of that idea.

“I still believe in the America that Washington has forgotten,” Lopez-Cantera added 

Pointing to his time in Tallahassee as Florida House majority leader and as Gov. Rick Scott’s understudy, Lopez-Cantera noted the economic gains Florida has seen in recent years, including 900,000 new jobs and lower taxes.

“Doesn’t sound much like Washington, does it?” Lopez-Cantera asked. “We’ve proven conservative principles work.”