Now that Marco Rubio is vying to keep his Senate seat, he has one serious challenger in the primary: Carlos Beruff.
Beruff, a successful home builder with a few years of experience as a political appointee on three state boards, led the polls until the field changed quickly upon news of Rubio’s return.
Beruff sits on three regulatory boards (State College of Florida, Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority, and the Southwest Florida Water Management District) by way of appointments from then-Republican governor Charlie Crist, who left the GOP in 2010 to challenge Marco Rubio as an independent. Crist later switched to the Democratic party in 2014 in a failed challenge to incumbent Republican Rick Scott.
After Crist bolted the GOP, Beruff stood by him, backing his independent bid against Rubio. A now-former competitor, Ron DeSantis, had his campaign create a webpage calling Beruff a “Charlie Crist Republican.”
But Beruff’s ties to squishy Republicans doesn’t end with his on-again, off-again party loyalty. He has also donated to former Democratic House hopeful Christine Jennings. Beruff gave Jennings’s campaign $4,200 in 2006.
Endorsed by radical pro-abortion advocates EMILY’s List, Jennings campaigned as a staunchly pro-abortion candidate. She lost, and is now a local Democratic party chair.
Beruff’s website doesn’t mention abortion explicitly, but it offers his views on the issue of “Life.”
Why would a Republican candidate who supposedly is a staunch believer in the sanctity of human life give a pro-choice Democrat running for Congress $4,200?
The Beruff campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the candidate’s political donations.
Update: The Beruff campaign responded in an email to TWS. “Carlos is pro-life and any attempt to claim otherwise is a blatant lie. He made a donation to a personal friend more than a decade ago,” said Beruff communications director Chris Hartline.
