Florida Rep. Stephanie Murphy will not challenge Rubio for Senate

“We’ve had too many close losses in Florida,” Murphy says in a statement.

By Marc Caputo

Rep. Stephanie Murphy won’t run for U.S. Senate, a decision that was sealed after fellow Florida Congresswoman Val Demings recently signaled she will likely challenge incumbent Marco Rubio.

“The reality is that Marco Rubio will not be an easy opponent especially if it’s on the heels of a bruising primary where Democrats spend millions attacking each other instead of using those millions to build the infrastructure we desperately need to win,” Murphy said Monday in a written statement.

Murphy plans to seek reelection to her Orlando-area seat and will help the state party with voter registration, organizing and strengthening the grassroots.

“We’ve had too many close losses in Florida, and so I wanted to use my experience from winning tough races to help the party prepare itself,” Murphy said.

Murphy is not the only Democrat who wanted to avoid a primary bid against Demings. Former Orlando-area prosecutor Aramis Ayala, who was also eying a senate bid, announced she would probably run instead for Demings’s House seat after the congresswoman made her intentions clear.

Another Orlando-area Democrat, former Rep. Alan Grayson, might still run against Demings in the Senate primary along with a handful of political newcomers who have already filed.

Since February, Murphy had intended to run for Senate and launched a listening tour of the state. At the time, Demings seemed noncommittal to running against Rubio and, for a time, entertained a campaign against Gov. Ron DeSantis.

But Demings decided she would have a better shot against Rubio and, advisers said last week, she had grown increasingly angered by Republican “obstruction” in Washington, making a Senate bid more attractive. National Democrats also had been urging her to run against Rubio, leaving the governor’s race to a battle between former Gov. Charlie Crist, who is now a Democratic congressman, and state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who has not made her bid official.

Murphy’s decision to stay is a relief to House Democrats, who have thin margins in the chamber and fretted the loss of a congresswoman who had experience winning in tough, competitive seats.

Murphy said Democrats need to do a better job working together and sticking together.

“While I will not be running statewide in 2022, I will work to help the Democratic party build towards statewide success,” she said. We must start now with unity of effort if we want the state to be ready to put the White House, a Senate seat, and more state and local races in the democratic column in 2024.”