‘Little Marco’ Rubio May Be On The Verge Of Losing His Florida Senate Seat

Call it the Donald Effect. It could well wind up handing control of the United States Senate to the Democrats, and it may be appearing soon in a state near you.

Case in point: Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. Rubio had initially said he wouldn’t seek reelection, then changed his mind at the last minute and announced he would indeed seek a second term. But thanks to the massive dislike of GOP nominee Donald Trump among many voters–especially among Hispanics–Rubio is now in one hell of a dogfight with his Democratic challenger, Patrick Murphy.

A new Quinnipiac University poll shows Rubio has a slim three-point lead over Murphy, 48 to 45 percent, which is well within the margin of error for the survey. In contrast, a July poll from Quinnipiac had Rubio up by thirteen points, 50 to 37 percent over his Democratic opponent.

Peter A. Brown, assistant polling director for Quinnipiac, said that Rubio, along with Pat Toomey, the incumbent GOP Senator from Pennsylvania, are two Senators being harmed the most by Trump’s negative numbers:

“At this stage of the campaign, Republican U.S. Senate candidates may be running against their own presidential nominee, Donald Trump, as much as they are against their Democratic opponents. 

The incumbent U.S. senators seeking re-election are running better than Trump. But if Trump continues to lag behind in the presidential race, that will make it more difficult for GOP candidates, logic holds, up and down the ballot.”

Might this all be good news for Hillary Clinton and the Democrats? The answer yes, potentially, if Democrats can flip four Senate seats currently held by Republicans. That would give them a 50-50 tie in the Senate, and the Vice President–Tim Kaine if Clinton and Kaine are victorious–would be able to break a tie.

As for the House of Representatives, it seems unlikely that Democrats will take control there, but they could make serious inroads on the GOP and then perhaps regain the majority in the 2018 mid-term election. For now, things appear to be coming up blue no matter where you look.

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