A.G. Gancarski
Sen. Marco Rubio doesn’t face the voters again until 2022, yet he is fundraising for whatever challenge awaits.
In the first quarter of 2019, Rubio raised $242,000 to his official committee (Marco Rubio for Senate), with another $157,500 coursing to the Rubio Victory Committee PAC.
Rubio ended Q1 with $810,833 in his official committee, and an additional $32,708 in the Victory Committee.
Of the 3,415 donations to Rubio’s official committee, 1,288 came from Florida. Publix, Crowley Maritime, and the Harris Corporation were among the donors with in-state business interests.
Back in 2016 when Rubio ran for President of the United States, he benefited from what was called “secret” money, with over $10 million coming in from a group called Conservative Solutions USA, as POLITICO reported.
Three years out from an election, however, there’s no call for anything like that.
Rubio’s Senate colleague, Republican Rick Scott, has proven an ability and willingness to self-finance during each of his three campaigns. So modest fundraising numbers aren’t much of a metric where he’s concerned.
Nonetheless, the Florida junior Senator’s Rick Scott for Florida committee raised just $29,699 during the quarter. However, $1.3 million is on hand.
The National Rural Electrification Association donated $5,000, leading all donors.
Another $6,694 went to the Team Rick Scott committee.
Rubio and Scott have been prominent nationally of late, especially regarding aggressive messaging on the continuing crisis in Venezuela.
Scott has labored particularly to strike a presidential tone, even suggesting that the U.S. military deliver aid to the country.
With almost six years to go, and a very real path to a presidential campaign emerging, expect that Sen. Scott will ramp up the finance apparatus when it is appropriate.
However, the first quarter of his first term clearly was too soon for much activity.
