sen. marco rubio leaves the west miami community center after early voting oct. 31, in west miami, fla. | ap photo/lynne sladky by matt dixon and zachary fagenson 11/08/16 08:12 pm est palm beach gardens <u+2014> sen. marco rubio sailed to victory tuesday night, knocking off democratic challenger patrick murphy and in the process giving national republicans a big victory. rubio had long been seen as the favorite, but public polling kept the race tight as the miami lawmaker faced heat about continuing to endorse republican presidential candidate donald trump. story continued below in the end, the associated press called the race almost immediately after polls closed at 8 p.m., with rubio pulling out an impressive double-digit win. after the win, rubio tried to strike a conciliatory tone. <u+201c>america is going to be ok, we will turn this country around,<u+201d> he told supporters in miami. murphy, a jupiter congressman, followed suit. he told a crowd of supporters at his palm beach gardens election night party that he conceded to rubio and that he wanted the state to come together after a contentious race. <u+201c>at this point, it<u+2019>s important we come together and do what is best for florida,<u+201d> he said. he stopped when boos rang out from the crowd at the mention of rubio<u+2019>s name, which prompted murphy to ask everyone to stop. the story of the race in many respects was split-tickets. though many voters in democratic strongholds in south florida supported democrat hillary clinton, they still voted for rubio in large numbers. in broward, clinton got nearly 30,000 more votes than murphy, while rubio outperformed trump in the county by more than 17,000 votes. in miami-dade, clinton outpaced murphy by more than 90,000 votes, while rubio beat trump by more than 80,000. overall, murphy only beat rubio in the miami-dade county 54-43, a relatively small margin for a democrat in a statewide race. rubio also said that after a tough election cycle, both in florida and nationally, everyone should come together. "while we can disagree on issues, we cannot share a country where people hate each other because of political affiliation,<u+201d> he told supporters. "we cannot move forward as a nation if we cannot have polite debates about tough issues." what helped tighten the race in recent public polls was the persistent questions that rubio faced about his support of trump, which often had him off his own message. but, in the end, rubio's ability to outperform trump in his home base of south florida meant the billionaire businessman did not hurt him. late tuesday, trump appeared headed to victory in florida, but rubio had garnered more than 200,000 votes than the former reality tv star. murphy, 33, was seen by even some in his own party as too young and inexperienced. throughout the campaign, rubio and outside republican super pacs were able to use media reports about murphy embellishing his professional resume in attack ads that only helped cement the negative perception. rubio had not initially planned to seek re-election after long saying he would return to private life following his failed white house bid. he changed his mind after the previous gop field failed to gather momentum, and national republicans feared they could lose the seat, which would have larger implications for control of the senate. if hillary clinton wins, democrats need to win four seats to take control of the senate, a number that jumps to five if trump wins. others states seen as key to the battle over control of the chamber are indiana, nevada, new hampshire, pennsylvania, north carolina, and missouri. helping matters for rubio is the fact that his outside allies had far outspent the murphy campaign both on the ground and on the airwaves. last month, politico florida reported that ad spending in the race had reached $40 million, of which $26 million funded pro-rubio ads or attack ads against murphy. rubio<u+2019>s campaign raised $13 million, including $2.6 million that came from political action committees or joint fundraising agreements. that included $200,000 from a joint fundraising committee that also backed senate candidates todd young of indiana and joe heck of nevada. outside of his campaign, groups like the nra, the u.s. chamber of commerce, and a super pac called the senate leadership fund also poured money into the state to help rubio. murphy<u+2019>s campaign brought in $14 million, slightly more than rubio<u+2019>s, but was hurt by the fact that outside groups came to rubio<u+2019>s help in larger numbers. national democrats pulled nearly $10 million in tv ads and hillary clinton<u+2019>s campaign never came through with promised financial help. because murphy had far less money for tv ads, he had a difficult time defining his own campaign. it<u+2019>s part of the reason attacks on his professional resume, including his time as a cpa, stuck and helped define his campaign. his young age coupled with a thin democratic bench in florida, leave many thinking that a run for another office is in murphy<u+2019>s future. in his remarks to supporters, he did say he wanted to continue in public service. <u+201c>there is a lot more work that needs to be done, but i could not be more humble to serve the people of congressional district 18,<u+201d> he said. updated at 10:40 p.m. with quotes from rubio and murphy. marc caputo's must-read briefing on what's hot, crazy or shady about politics in the sunshine state.
rubio outperforms trump on pace to easy victory over murphy in u.s. senate race
matt dixon zachary fagenson