Sen. Marco Rubio was so over the Senate that he missed more than half of the chamber’s votes in late 2015 and repeatedly mocked his colleagues for being useless.
Now, the Florida Republican is giving serious thought to revoking his retirement and running to rejoin his fellow senators for another term.
The erstwhile presidential candidate is being intensely courted by party leaders in Washington, who hope he will be able to keep the seat for Republicans more easily than other party candidates.
But running would require several about-faces for Mr. Rubio, including eating his words about the frustration of serving in the Senate. He also would be the anointed candidate of the Republican establishment — a far cry from the tea party darling he was in his 2010 race, when he chased a sitting governor, Charlie Crist, from the Republican Party.
That makes his decision about whether to run less than certain.
“Rubio has been around long enough where his opponents will paint him as an insider,” said Nathan Gonzales of The Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report, a nonpartisan group that tracks elections. “I don’t think there are any guarantees if he runs for the Senate and quite a risk if he does it.”
Mr. Rubio is racing a Friday filing deadline, but he has begun to clear the field for the Republican primary. Rep. David W. Jolly announced Friday that he was ending his Senate bid in order to defend his House seat, and he said he expects Mr. Rubio will run again.
Via the Washington Times