Marco Rubio

What If All Four Florida Potential Republican Presidential Candidates Ran?

The “Sunshine” State (Florida) could, potentially, have four of its citizens who have served in public office all announcing for the Presidential nomination of the Republican Party for 2024.

Donald Trump has already announced, back in November 2022.

Governor Ron DeSantis is certain to announce after the Florida legislature finishes its session in April.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio already ran for President in 2016, and without a Senate race coming up, could announce another attempt for the Presidency.

Florida Senator Rick Scott, former Governor, faces a Senate reelection contest, but still could decide to put his name into the battle for the White House.

The concept that four political leaders from one state could be competing is a first.

Also, the question is how would these four Florida Republicans stack up if all were on the ballot in the Florida Primary, and what would be their total support for the nomination in competition with other Republican contenders.

Earlier in American history, there were two Floridians in the Democratic Party who mounted unsuccessful campaigns for President–Governor Reubin Askew (1984) and finalist for Vice President for George McGovern (1972); and Governor and Senator Bob Graham (2004), with Graham also on short lists a number of times to be a potential running mate of various Democratic Presidential candidates, including Michael Dukakis (1988), Bill Clinton (1992), Al Gore (2000) and John Kerry (2004).

The South Dominates In Potential Republican Presidential Contenders!

The American South was the area that revolted against the federal government, and seceded from the Union in 1860-1861, culminating in the American Civil War (1861-1865), with the Republican Party representing the Union cause, and the Democratic Party being dominant in the South.

The South remained strongly Democratic until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed under Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Since then, most of the South has become strongly Republican, and promoters of white supremacy and Christian Nationalism, to the point that most of the potential Republican Presidential contenders in 2024 derive from the South!

These include the following:

Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Marco Rubio, and Rick Scott of Florida
Ted Cruz and Greg Abbott of Texas
Asa Hutchinson and Tom Cotton of Arkansas
Nikki Haley and Tim Scott of South Carolina
Glenn Youngkin of Virginia

These eleven Republicans are not all sure bets to run, but all have been rumored, although some seem to be backing away from doing so.

Other potential contenders come from the Northeast area of the US, including

Chris Sununu of New Hampshire
Chris Christie of New Jersey
Larry Hogan of Maryland

And finally, from the Midwest area of the US, we have such potential contenders as

Mike Pence of Indiana
Mike Pompeo of Kansas
Josh Hawley of Missouri
Kristi Noem of South Dakota
Adam Kinzinger of Illinois

And finally, we have Liz Cheney of Wyoming

The Republican “Donnybrook” Begins At Republican Jewish Coalition Gathering!

The Republican Presidential race has begun, with Donald Trump declaring his candidacy last week in a very uninspiring manner, and a whole slew of potential candidates showing up to display their “virtues” at the Republican Jewish Coalition gathering this past weekend in Las Vegas.

At least 21 potential Republican candidates are in the mix for 2024 at this point!

The potential candidates include those who worked for Trump, and those who looked the other way with his reckless, lawless behavior in office. It also included some who were neither category, but seem unlikely to make much traction!

Among those who worked for Donald Trump are former Vice President Mike Pence; former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.

Among those who looked the other way are Texas Senator Ted Cruz; Missouri Senator Josh Hawley; Florida Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott; Kentucky Senator Rand Paul; and a number of Governors, including Ron DeSantis of Florida; Greg Abbott of Texas; Glenn Youngkin of Virginia; and Kristi Noem of South Dakota.

A third category are those who avoided embracing Trump, including former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie; outgoing Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson; and New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu.

Also, former Republican 2012 Presidential nominee and Utah Senator Mitt Romney; and Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney and Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger are truly anti Trump, and the latter two, of course, have served on the January 6 House Committee investigating the US Capitol Insurrection.

And an intriguing possility is African American Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina!

Imagine A Potential Republican Presidential Primary With Four Floridians In Spring 2024!

The potential exists for four Floridian Republicans to be running for President in the 2024 primaries.

Former President Donald Trump; Florida Governor Ron DeSantis; and Florida Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott are all potential contenders for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2024, along with a massive number of other potential candidates, numbering in the low 20s as a total!

Already, there is a growing rivalry between Trump and DeSantis, and Trump is coming to campaign for Marco Rubio next week, but has not invited DeSantis to the event!

So the confrontation between two massive egos has begun, and it should be fun to watch, particularly since Rubio and Scott are also intent on running for the Presidency in the same cycle!

Potential For Democrats To Gain Multiple Senate Seats In Midterm Elections Of 2022

The potential now exists for the Democrats to gain multiple Senate seats in the Midterm Elections of 2022!

With six Republicans Senators retiring, at least three of those seats could go to the Democrats, along with three Republican Senators running for reelection having troubles in their reelection campaigns.

Pennsylvania with John Fetterman; Ohio with Tim Ryan; and North Carolina with Cheri Beasley, all have a good shot to win what have been Republican seats.

Additionally, Florida with Val Demings and Wisconsin with Mandela Barnes could see the defeat of Marco Rubio and Ron Johnson. And the longest serving Republican Senator, Chuck Grassley, running at age 89 for another six year term, also has a tough race from retired Admiral Michael Franken that should not be ignored.

Four Democratic Senators have major challenges to keep their seats—Mark Kelly in Arizona; Raphael Warnock in Georgia; Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada; and Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire.

Also, Mike Lee in Utah has a strong independent, Evan McMullin, trying to defeat this loyal Trumpite, and Democrats are backing him.

Rand Paul in Kentucky has a strong African American opponent in Democrat Charles Booker, and the defeat of Paul would be welcome, but unexpected.

In Missouri, Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine will try to stop Republican Eric Schmitt, another tough race without an incumbent, but Schmitt favored to win.

The possibility of up to a 4-5 seat gain for Democrats is in the cards, if the present trend in polls continues!

Results Of Tuesday’s Primaries Indicate The Upcoming Midterm Elections Favoring Democrats

The feeling is developing that Democrats are going to have an unexpected advantage in November’s Midterm Elections.

The strong support of Florida Democrats for Charlie Crist and for Val Demings portend, hopefully, difficult races for Governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Marco Rubio. It would seem that both races will be close, and the hope is that the Democratic nominees, the strongest possible nominees, have a good chance of victory, but it will not be easy in any sense.

DeSantis is acting more every day like an authoritarian tyrant, and there is pushback on his actions that centralize too much power in the governorship, and give us a hint of the horrors of this man, were he to run for and win the Presidency in 2024.

Rubio has been a lazy and unprincipled Senator, who did not even want to run for reelection in 2016, but did after his failed Presidential candidacy in that year. But his total obsequious nature toward Donald Trump makes him clearly a weak, indecisive figure, who has no concern about the danger to American democracy of the former President, whom he once condemned harshly.

In New York, moderates won out over “progressives” in a number of Congressional races, including Dan Goldman (who was engaged in the prosecution of Donald Trump in his first impeachment trial); Jerry Nadler, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee; and Sean Patrick Maloney, the Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Also, in upstate New York, in a Congressional election to elect a person to finish a Congressional term of someone who resigned, seen as a battle over abortion rights, Pat Ryan, the Democratic nominee and strongly for abortion rights, defeated a Republican, and this is seen as another sign of the strong support of Democrats, Independents, and some moderate Republicans for abortion rights to be insured, following up on the Kansas state abortion vote in July!

The Republican Party Declares War On Law Enforcement And National Security!

The Republican Party, Donald Trump loyalists, and Fox News Channel have declared war on law enforcement and national security, threatening action to destroy the FBI, Department of Justice, and Department of Homeland Security, over the legitimate action of removing national security and other government documents wrongfully taken by Donald Trump to his Florida estate, Mar A Lago, when he left office 19 months ago!

It is shocking to see the reaction of a large slew of Republicans, including, among others:

Rick Scott
Marco Rubio
Ted Cruz
Rand Paul
Josh Hawley
Tom Cotton
Kevin McCarthy
Jim Jordan
Elise Stefanik
Newt Gingrich

They and numerous others are promoting violence and potential civil war, and it is clear that they have become the Fascist Party, with the desire to install Donald Trump as the dictator of the US, with the plan to wipe out these government agencies!

Death threats are emanating, with the fear that top government officials to the highest level, may be subjected to assassination threats, a horrifying thought!

Another January 6th is a possibility, an attack on the US Capitol or other government buildings by an armed mob, with domestic terrorism being inflamed further by Donald Trump and his minions!

Republicans And Veterans: Total Hypocrisy And Disgrace!

The Republican Party loves to wave the flag and talk about “patriotism”, but they are regularly against veterans receiving health care for their sacrifices since September 11.

They just, out of spite, worked yesterday against aid to soldiers exposed to toxic pits and other dangers in war zones, including in Afghanistan and Iraq after September 11.

It is shocking to see even so called “better” Republicans, such as Mitt Romney and Ben Sasse joining with outgoing Senators, such as Rob Portman, Pat Toomey, Richard Burr, Roy Blunt, and Richard Shelby, and all of the usual obnoxious Senators (including Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Josh Hawley, Rick Scott, and others) to vote against veterans’ health aid!

Only 8 Republican Senators supported the legislation yesterday, including Susan Collins, Shelley Moore Capito, Marco Rubio, Jerry Moran, Chuck Grassley, Lindsey Graham, and two others!

Two Key Republican Senators To Defeat In November: Ron Johnson And Marco Rubio

Two key Republican Senators who are targets to be defeated in November’s Midterm Elections are:

Ron Johnson of Wisconsin

Marco Rubio of Florida

Both have served 12 years in the Senate, and both have horrendous records, but the battle to retire them will not be easy.

Johnson defeated twice the outstanding Democratic Senator, Russ Feingold, a major tragedy, and he has been a “loose cannon’ and a total Trump supporter, including refusal to reject the “Big Lie” that Trump won the election, and to acknowledge Joe Biden as President.

His most likely opponent is Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, who is African American, 35 years old, and would be a refreshing addition as a progressive reformer to the US Senate.

Rubio has demonstrated that he is ultimately interested in running again for the Presidency as he did in 2016, making clear he does not appreciate being a Senator, and seeing it only as a stepping stone. After saying he would not run again in 2016 for his Senate seat, he changed his mind and ran and won again. But he has shown lack of courage and conviction and his willingness to kowtow to Donald Trump, who insulted him immensely, but now he continues to back the former President and his “Big Lie”.

His opponent will be Congresswoman Val Demings, who is African American, 65 years old, with a long career in law enforcement, and head of the Orlando, Florida Police Department, before serving in a Central Florida Congressional seat since 2017. She has been inspirational as a speaker and advocate for progressive reform.

CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) A Mockery Of Conservatism And The Party Of Lincoln!

The annual CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) took place for four days last week in Orlando, Florida, the home of three of the absolutely worst political leaders imaginable–Governor Ron DeSantis, Senator and former Governor Rick Scott, and Senator Marco Rubio!

White Supremacists and lovers of Vladimir Putin, who is waging war on Ukraine, dominated the four days of speeches, and showed just how authoritarian oriented these so called conservatives are, who have made a mockery of conservatism and the party of Lincoln!

There was no support of the brave Ukranians, fighting against the most dangerous man on the planet, Vladimir Putin, but lunatic support of Donald Trump, the most dangerous man in America, who keeps his legions of supporters loyal to his anti democratic, anti NAT0 and Fascist authoritarianism, which waged war on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021!

The CPAC poll for the 2024 Republican Presidential nomination had Trump winning 59 percent of the vote, to Ron DeSantis and 28 percent, second year in a row of CPAC still supporting the traitor and seditionist Donald Trump!

The true conservatives—the Lincoln Project—and such leaders as Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Larry Hogan, Charlie Baker, Chris Sununu, along with fellow former Republicans outside of government—are working to undermine the Trump legions, and save the party future!