republican sen. marco rubio won re-election in florida, blocking democrats from taking over the seat and vindicating gop leaders who had urged him to run for a second term. mr. rubio, who entered the senate contest in june after dropping out of the presidential race, was ahead of democratic rep. patrick murphy by 51% to 45.4% when the associated press called the race with 31% of precincts reporting. a 2016 presidential candidate, mr. rubio ended that campaign after suffering a humiliating defeat to republican donald trump in the florida presidential primary. mr. rubio had earlier said he wouldn<u+2019>t run for re-election to the senate, indicating that he found the chamber stifling. but republican leaders pressed mr. rubio, 45 years old, to reconsider, viewing him as their strongest candidate in a state with expensive media markets and a diverse population. with his strong personal brand, mr. rubio was viewed by many republicans as someone who would be hard to tether to mr. trump. the race brought the weaknesses of both candidates to the surface. mr. rubio, who had the worst attendance record in the senate in 2015, was painted by his rival as an absentee senator. mr. murphy, 33, faced accusations that he had inflated his resume, calling himself a certified public accountant when he had only done cpa work for several months and allegedly mischaracterizing his company<u+2019>s cleanup work in the gulf of mexico after the 2010 bp oil spill. the campaign arm for senate democrats had earlier this year canceled some advertising in the state in order to put its money to use in states with more promising chances. some democrats came to regret that decision. senate majority pac, the formidable super pac run by people close to senate majority leader harry reid (d., nev.), sent a seven-figure sum to a super pac supporting mr. murphy in the final two weeks of the campaign. but it wasn<u+2019>t enough. write to siobhan hughes at siobhan.hughes@wsj.com
marco rubio wins florida senate race - wsj
siobhan hughes