Janelle Irwin Taylor
Democratic strategists wasted no time eyeing their next prize after former Vice President Joe Biden was declared President-elect Saturday morning, defeating Republican President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
Democratic strategist Ben Pollara launched the Retire Rubio website, Super PAC and a revived Twitter account, which seeks to remove U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio from office when he is up for reelection in 2022.
The campaign has more than 13,000 followers on Twitter, though the account has been active since May of 2019.
Pollara describes the campaign as an effort “to singularly focus on defeating this weak, sad, disappointing and absent Senator in 2022.”
The group’s first ad, titled “Little Marco,” features Trump himself questioning Rubio’s electability and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, also a previous presidential contender, skewering Rubio’s absences in the Senate.
It recycles a nickname for Rubio coined four years ago by Trump when he faced Rubio in a crowded GOP primary in that year’s presidential election.
“In election after election, Marco Rubio has skated by without being held accountable for his extremism and corruption in the Senate. For years, Marco’s campaigns have been bankrolled by Big Oil, Big Pharma, the NRA, and Wall Street, so if we’re going to be successful in taking them on, we have to get started early,” the website reads.
“That’s why on the heels of the 2020 election and Marco’s assistance in ramming through Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, Retire Rubio is forming to take on Marco Rubio’s hyper-partisanship and failed leadership. We are a grassroots-funded organization solely dedicated to taking on Marco Rubio and supporting his eventual Democratic opponent for Senate in 2022,” it continues.
The website goes on to describe Rubio as a politician “singularly dedicated to advancing his own political career — not the interests of everyday Floridians.”
The website includes a link to contribute to the cause and a sign-up to receive email updates.
Pollara has a lot of Florida successes, which he hopes to build upon with this campaign. Those include this year’s successful push to raise Florida’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026, which was Amendment 2 on Tuesday’s ballot. He also worked on Miami Rep. Nick Duran’s successful reelection to a third term, previously worked on Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried’s 2018 campaign and was part of the leadership team that ushered in medical marijuana in 2016 via constitutional amendment.
“Marco Rubio has an appalling history of hardly ever showing up for work — and of siding with Wall Street, corporate polluters, big sugar and the NRA — over the people of our state. Retire Rubio’s chief objective is to focus like a laser on Little Marco’s failures and to ultimately defeat him in 2022,” Pollara said.
Nick Merlino, considered a rising star in Democratic politics, is also working on the Retire Rubio campaign. Merlino, this year, managed a congressional campaign in Texas and previously worked with Pollara on medical marijuana.
Dave Jacobson, a former CNN political commentator, and Mac Zilber, both Democratic ad makers and co-founders of the award-winning political media firm J&Z Strategies, will serve as Retire Rubio’s media team.
17 comments
James Robert Miles
November 7, 2020 at 4:00 pm
I want to be one of the first on the list to see to it that Marco is a goner! He has done NOTHING for the people of Florida. He represents only like minded Republicans and does not represent all the people of Florida like he is supposed to. Marco needs to be educated in what representative government is supposed to be. He and Rick Scott both need to be gone!
Sonja Fitch
November 7, 2020 at 4:37 pm
Get out now Marco! Resign now! You owe the citizens of Florida the decency to resign now! You are incapable of being a good and decent leader! You are weak and ineffective human!
Palmer Tom
November 7, 2020 at 5:01 pm
Well, I guess the key element in this move is to come up with a viable candidate who can defeat Rubio. This is not a small task. Unorganized Florida Democrats, what is your plan?
Douglas Walton
November 7, 2020 at 7:26 pm
you said it Tom the Florida Democratic Party is one of the worst state parties in the country. I tried to give them advice years ago when I lived in St. Petersburg and they sent some guy to organize for the 2010 governor’s election and they totally ignored what I told them then and in subsequent elections which they all lost. As an African-American the democratic party takes our vote for granted and I kept telling them they need to do a massive door to door effort to engage African Americans and come up with specific proposals to better the lives of African Americans, also advised them to make sure you are hiring many qualified African-Americans on your campaign and in your administration, congressional office, council office, etc. None of my advice was taken and now the Florida Dems have done the same thing in Miami-Dade county and to some extent in Broward county with Hispanics, African-Americans, and other people of color. It will be decades before they win another state wide election in Florida. Texas will turn blue in 2024 but Florida will still be red. I guarantee Rubio wins re-election if he choses to run again, and I say that as a democrat who worked on political campaigns back here in Cincinnati, Ohio in the early 2000’s as well as the 2004 Presidential campaign as a field organizer in Cincinnati and volunteered on tons of campaigns in Cincinnati, and St. Petersburg Florida
Mary
November 7, 2020 at 11:01 pm
Rick Scott also needs to go.
These two men do NOTHING FOR THE SALARY THEY RECEIVE.
WHY IS THE UNEMOLOYMENT SYSTEM STILL BROKEN? OEOPLE ARE OWED $$$$1000’S OF UNPAID UNEMPLOYMENT…
BUT THESE 2 CLOWNS COLLECT THEIR CHECKS…. MAYBE WE SHOUKD STOP THEIR PAY UNTIL THEY FIX FLORIDA’S UNEMPLOYMENT.
CREATE LEGISLATION STATING ” YOU FAIL THE STATE CITIZENS, YOU FORFEIT YOUR PAY UNTIL REPARATIONS MADE.
BOTTOM OF THE FLORIDA SWAMP THESE 2 “PUBLIC SERVANTS” LIE.
Craig
November 8, 2020 at 8:05 am
Ummm.They better get their act together here first.Florida democrats couldnt win a dog catcher contest right now
B Hale
November 8, 2020 at 9:24 am
No one believe Joe Biden won this election. I am interested in knowing more about Hammer and Scorecard software that was used in all these states that Biden won more votes them Obama did!
The man couldn’t get 50 people to show up to hear him talk. No one will believe in any future election unless a manual vote count is done just like Gore V Bush was done. But Democrats will never let that happen because we all know what we will find is Major fraud.
Cj
November 8, 2020 at 6:40 pm
Well I can only speak for myself but Democratic policy across the nation has just become repulsive to me. To illustrate I took it upon myself to read the Green Deal and it full of literature about racism and sexism. Without even getting into the debate on climate change I find many parts of this policy(mentioned above) to be downright obnixous.
Furthermore it is apparent Democrats have become the party existing to labeling many of us racists, sexists, bigots and worse; in the sake of writing policy. I have no idea how they are claiming themselves to be the party to unite us or how anybody can actually believe that. It hasent worked on me. I was an Independant who tryed to stay open minded to both side and Dems have pushed me away. I will likely be registering as a Republican in the future and giving no benefit to Democratic policy or thought. My thoughts are almost entirley based on policy.
just sayin
November 9, 2020 at 9:15 am
Bill Nelson was the Democratic Senator for eighteen years and did absolutely nothing. Who is the party going to run against him? Knowing the FDP, they’ll pick Gillum to run. The party is a joke. Every time they lose, it’s someone else’s fault. No introspection, no personal accountability.
Just the facts, please.
November 9, 2020 at 10:55 am
Your “facts” are a little old. Out of 52 Senators during 2019, Marco Rubio is #9 in bipartisanship. As a matter of fact of the top 10, there is only one Democrat senator (Kyrsten Sinema from AZ) [TheLugarcenter.org]. Of the top 20, only 4 Democrats are bipartisan. Funny how it’s such a big word for you guys while you seem to be really bad at it.
PeterH
November 9, 2020 at 4:46 pm
First you need a qualified Democratic candidate and a unified Florida Democratic Party. It’s overdue….. Florida needs younger educated leaders and the Party needs to get behind them.
Michele
November 9, 2020 at 7:14 pm
Excuse me. What country is this?? Exactly WHO “declared” Biden president??
Larry Gillis
November 9, 2020 at 9:33 pm
No mention of the Libertarians in your article. The Republicans adopted NO platform this time, so they are vulnerable on a charge of standing for nothing.
If you are truly interested in limited government and maximum freedom, vote Libertarian.
Larry Gillis, Libertarian (Cape Coral)
Terri
November 9, 2020 at 9:39 pm
The American voters have declared Joe Biden President the same way Trump was declared President by the voters 4 years ago. Duh! So that’s why when President Trump did an investigation into election fraud he came up with NO Voter Fraud. Investigation already done. Check the facts. It’s also been investigated a couple more times over the last two decades and nada. No voter fraud. So does President Trump accept his own findings? Nope. Instead he just repeats a lie about voter fraud over and over without any evidence and some Americans believe him just because they hear it over and over. It’s called gaslighting. Learn about it. I dare you.
Marlene Ferro
November 11, 2020 at 3:46 am
How can I help? Death Santis has to be on the list also. Florida cant continue to have these puppets in office. It’s been a disgrace. Marco lined his pocket with money from the NRA and Death Santis is KILLING it’s people.He made so many excuses for the unemployment blaming Rick Scott, but not finding a solution. If Trump tells him to jump he says how high. This man cant tie his shoelaces we cant have him elected to any office. Also stop electing because they are latin, elect them because they are going to look after our state and the people. They seem to forget the reason they are in office. Please contact me to assist.
Maria Mustelier Copello
November 11, 2020 at 12:59 pm
What that Marcos Rubio has done nothing at all his only concern is his policy towards Cuba but for us in Florida he has only tried to maintain his political position a way of not working is one of our worst congressmen who only have a fixed obsession with Cuba at the shit Rubio let’s find congressmen who care about improving the lives of Floridians Like Rick Scott is another that only look for their personal positions
Michelle Busby
November 11, 2020 at 11:08 pm
Michele – It seems that the individual states in which Biden won – whether leaning Democrat or Republican – have collectively said that he has indeed won the presidency. In the electoral college, it is the states that ultimately make the call. Republicans typically embrace federalism and states rights, but seem to have forgotten that principle in 2020. The media simply reports the final count. You can argue that Fox jumped the gun by calling Arizona early, but ultimately Arizona did go with Biden. Enjoy the fact that the Republicans have held the Senate so far. I don’t hear any cries of voter fraud when Republicans have won seats in the SAME election!
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