Deon Long Joins Growing List of GOP Senate Hopefuls in Florida

A 2010 congressional candidate has filed federal papers to run in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate next year. You might call him the quintessenial "long shot."

Deon Long, a Winter Park attorney, finished fifth in a five-way GOP primary in Central Florida's 24th Congressional District, garnering just 3 percent of the vote. The winner of that contest, Sandy Adams, went on to oust Democratic incumbent Suzanne Kosmas.

An advocate of the FAIR Tax and a return to the gold standard, Long said the Senate race is "wide open."

"I'm serious about this race. We're raising money and we're going to run a statewide campaign. We've been planning this since before Mike Haridopolos dropped out," he said.

Another candidate from last year's CD 24 primary, Craig Miller, joined the Senate race last month. Miller placed third in the 2010 House contest, receiving 27.7 percent of the vote, 1,616 votes behind Adams.

In addition to Miller and now Long, the GOP Senate field includes Adam Hasner, George LeMieux and Mike McCalister, with probably more to come.