Former Florida Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, is looking at entering the Republican primary to replace U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who is running for president in 2016 instead of a second term.
Gaetz told the Miami Herald that he was thinking about entering the Senate contest now that Rubio and state CFO Jeff Atwater are out of the running and said he would consider drawing on his own accounts to help fund the campaign.
"With Jeff Atwater out, that just shows how much the eggs have been scrambled in Florida, that I have people calling me and offering substantial commitments of support," Gaetz told the Miami Herald.
However, Gaetz noted that he is not well-known to many voters and that could keep him from getting to the starting line.
Having moved to Florida in the late 1970s, Gaetz, now 67, won a seat on the Okaloosa School Board back in 1994 before being elected superintendent in 2000. Gaetz was elected to the Senate in 2006 and took over as president after the 2012 elections, giving up the gavel two years later. He currently chairs the Appropriations Subcommittee on Education.
Gaetz is looking at an increasingly growing field of candidates mulling over Senate runs. U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Fla., launched a Senate bid last month while U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., has left the door open to challenging him in the Democratic primary.
On the Republican side, U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., also announced on Tuesday that he is considering a Senate bid. U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., is also looking at entering the Senate race while U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., and U.S. Rep. Curt Clawson, R-Fla., are also possible candidates. So are former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, R-Fla., Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera and former Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford who led that chamber while Gaetz was in charge of the Senate.
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