Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster
The fundraising committee backing U.S. Senate hopeful Carlos Lopez-Cantera is assuring his supporters the lieutenant governor has the backing of Marco Rubio.
In an email to supporters Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Reform Washington, the super PAC backing Lopez-Cantera, said Rubio “put the rampant rumors that he was reconsidering running for his Senate seat to rest.”
The email then pointed to several recent articles, including a story by Heatstreet contributor Sarah Rumpf, that said Rubio was making fundraising calls for Lopez-Cantera. According to the Heatstreet report, “Rubio was on a phone call with major donors Friday morning to urge them to support” Lopez-Cantera.
According to the report, both Rubio and Lopez-Cantera were on the call.
On Thursday, Marc Caputo with POLITICO said Rubio told reporters earlier in the day that Republicans “need to make sure we get behind the right candidate in the primary to win. I think Carlos Lopez-Cantera is a very good candidate.”
The memo to supporters also points out Rubio hosted a fundraiser for Lopez-Cantera earlier this month.
Federal campaign reports show Reform Washington has raised more than $1 million since January 2015. Lopez-Cantera, reports show, has raised $1.03 million since July 2015.
Lopez-Cantera faces Ron DeSantis, David Jolly, Carlos Beruff and Todd Wilcox in the Aug. 30 Republican primary.
According to a statewide survey by Associated Industries of Florida, Rubio remains the best bet for Republicans in the U.S. Senate race. In a hypothetical match-up between Rubio and Democrat Patrick Murphy, Rubio would receive 49 percent to Murphy’s 41 percent.
The same survey found Murphy would defeat Lopez-Cantera 42 to 31 percent in a head-to-head matchup. Murphy, who many believe will get the Democratic nomination, came out on top in all of the hypothetical matchups in the Associated Industries’ survey.
