According to NPR, “Rubio got booed off a stage in Orlando on Sunday, by a crowd that was overwhelmingly Latino.”
Relish the sound of it.
That Rubio’s better positioned for re-election than many other swing-state Republican senators frustrates liberals to no end. Part of this frustration stems from a lingering anxiety about the thought of Rubio beating Hillary Clinton in 2020 (though his underwhelming 2016 presidential campaign set most of those fears to rest).
The bigger issue is that liberals believe Rubio deserves comeuppance for the way he’s conducted himself as a senator and political candidate. Rubio has bumbled around the playing field of Republican politics heedlessly for six years, looking for a sweet-spot that keeps eluding him. First he was a Tea Party insurgent; then he was a pro-immigration reform healer; then he abandoned immigration reform; then he promised he wouldn’t seek re-election to the Senate so he could stake it all on a bid for the presidency; then he refused to criticize Donald Trump; then he accused President Obama of intentionally sabotaging America; then he said Trump was a con-man, unfit for the presidency, who could not be trusted with the nuclear codes; then Trump beat him; then he endorsed Trump; then he announced he’d run for re-election after all, which brings us to the present day, and a widespread sense among liberals that someone with Rubio’s track record doesn’t deserve a second term in office.
Liberals may not get their way, but if Rubio loses it will be due to this very inconstancy, which has driven down his support among Hispanic voters in Florida. Many of them associate Rubio with Trump’s bigotry and the rise of nativism and will register their disapproval at the polls.