Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is keeping up his push for Sen. Marco Rubio to run for re-election in November, even though Rubio has said he has no plans to do so.
“We hope our candidate will end up being Marco Rubio,” McConnell said in a Facebook video chat with the Huffington Post on Tuesday.
Since suspending his presidential campaign, Rubio has said he will not run for re-election in order to be with his family, and to avoid running against his friend Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera. On Hugh Hewitt’s radio show Monday, Rubio said he hadn’t given any thought to whether Sunday’s mass shooting in Orlando would have an impact on his political future, despite repeated prodding from Hewitt.
“[I] haven’t even given a thought in that perspective other than to say that I’ve been deeply impacted by it and I think when it visits your home state, when it impacts a community you know well, it really gives you pause to think a little bit about your service to your country and where you can be most useful to your country,” Rubio said.
McConnell also said that he doesn’t think Donald Trump at the top of the ticket will hurt vulnerable GOP senators running for re-election.
“[W]e were going to have a challenging cycle anyway,” the Kentucky Republican said. “Most of your readers or viewers know red and blue states, and there are purple states that can go either way.”
According to McConnell, Senate races in notably “purple states” such as New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin often determine who wins the White House. He also mentioned “opportunities” in Nevada and Colorado, which he said are purple states.
“We were already going to have very competitive races, and be largely on defense because we had such a good year six years ago,” McConnell explained.
