Qualifying closed in Florida’s U.S. Senate race on Friday as Marco Rubio gears up to run for a second term.
After announcing on Wednesday that he would run again, Rubio chased out most of the Republican primary field. Congressman David Jolly pulled out last week even before Rubio launched his campaign. On Wednesday, Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera and Congressman Ron DeSantis dropped out of the race. While he said he would stay in regardless of what Rubio did, businessman and Army veteran Todd Wilcox bowed out of the race on Friday.
But Rubio did not clear the decks and will face a major challenger in businessman Carlos Beruff who is already hitting the incumbent for not keeping to his word and running again. Dark horses Ernie Rivera and Dwight Young also qualified in the Republican primary.
Two congressmen--Alan Grayson and Patrick Murphy--qualified on the Democratic side. So did attorney and Navy veteran Pam Keith. Also qualifying were dark horses Rocky De La Fuente and Reginald Luster.
Florida will have a statewide Libertarian primary in August. Attorney Augustus Invictus whose pagan activities garnered him national attention will square off against veteran and IT consultant Paul Stanton in the Libertarian primary.
Basil Dalack, an attorney and veteran who served as a Tequesta Village councilman, qualified for the ballot with no party affiliation. So did Tony Khoury, attorney and writer Steven Machat and Army veteran Bruce Nathan.
The following candidates qualified as write-ins: Jon Friend, Robert Kaplan, Howard Knepper, Bradley Patrick, Charles Frederick Tolbert and Angela Marie Walls-Windhauser.
