Look Who’s Back! Marco Rubio Will Seek Senate Re-Election After All

“The stakes for our nation could not be higher,” Rubio says

marco rubio gop debate cnn

Former GOP presidential candidate Marco Rubio announced Wednesday that he will run for re-election to his Florida Senate seat, flip-flopping just three months after saying he would retire from the Senate if he did not win the presidential nomination.

The politician dubbed “Little Marco” by presumptive nominee Donald Trump indicated that his decision was based on his concern that maintaining Republican control of the Senate could come down to the race in Florida.

“The stakes for our nation could not be higher,” Rubio said, noting that maintaining a conservative majority could shape the future of the Supreme Court and critical policy deals.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has pressured Rubio to seek re-election, fearing that another candidate would lose to a Democrat.

Rubio ended his presidential bid in March after a disappointing second place finish in his home state’s primary, winning only to 26 percent of the vote while Trump claimed nearly 47 percent and cemented his frontrunner status.

“While it is not God’s plan that I be president in 2016 or maybe ever, and while today my campaign is suspended, the fact that I’ve even come this far is evidence of how special America truly is,” Rubio said at the time.

The Florida senator, who at one point was seen as the establishment’s hope to stop Trump, eventually failed to galvanize voters, winning only a handful of states and territories in the GOP primary — including Minnesota, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.

Comments