Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) increased his fundraising pace in the third quarter of the year, generating $6 million as he prepares for a reelection campaign in 2022.
The $6 million hauls is an increase over the roughly $4 million he raised in the second quarter, when his primary Democratic opponent, Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), outraised him by about $700,000.
He’ll now enter the last quarter of 2021 with roughly $9.6 million in cash on hand.
Rubio has raised over $12 million for his reelection campaign so far this year. Fox News was the first to report on his most recent fundraising number.
Rubio’s Senate seat is one of many that Democrats hope to flip next year in order to maintain and/or extend their razor-thin majority in the upper house.
Demings has emerged as the early favorite to oppose Rubio in 2022, despite the fact that the party’s nomination campaign is still in its early stages.
Despite its status as a perennial battleground, Florida has proven to be a difficult target for Democrats in recent years.
Democrats lost one of the state’s Senate seats in the 2018 midterm elections while losing the governor’s race to now-Gov. Ron DeSantis.
From there, things have only become tougher.
In 2020, former President Trump won Florida for the second time, defeating Vice President Biden by more than 3-points – a landslide by Sunshine State standards.
Florida, on the other hand, is far from a foregone conclusion for Republicans.
For one reason, given the state’s ten media markets, enormous size, and varied population, running a statewide campaign is too expensive. Demings, meantime, has established herself as a strong fundraiser in her own way.
