Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Leader wants Gaetz to run against Rubio
Palm Beach County GOP member wants congressman to run in next Senate primary
Joe Budd, a leader of the Palm Beach County Republican Party, said Friday he wants Congressman Matt Gaetz to challenge U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio in the 2022 party primary for U.S. Senate.
Budd said he isn’t the only one who feels that way. “Our people who are your more hard-core Trump supporters have a disdain for Marco Rubio,” he said.
“If he [Gaetz] ever thought there was a good time to step up to senator, now would be it,” he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “I’m going to encourage him to run.”
Budd is Palm Beach County’s Republican state committeeman, reelected to that post by Republican voters in the August 2020 primary.
He is also president of the Trump Club 45 USA, a political club that draws enormous crowds to its monthly meetings. (Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Budd said monthly meetings drew 1,400 to 1,800 people. Since then, 900 to 1,200.)
And he was an early, public supporter of Trump when most of the state’s Republican establishment favored Rubio or former Gov. Jeb Bush for the 2016 presidential nomination. He also was an early supporter of Gov. Ron DeSantis, when most of the Republi
can establishment favored Adam Putnam for the 2018 gubernatorial nomination.
Michael Barnett, chairman of the Palm Beach County Republican Party, said Friday he supports Rubio’s re-election and doesn’t want to see a primary challenge.
“I like Marco. I think he’s done a great job as senator these last two terms,” Barnett said. “I’d like to see him get re-elected. I believe he has been a good ally for the president.”
Like Budd, Barnett was a Trump supporter when many in the Republican political establishment supported Rubio or Bush for the 2016 presidential nomination.
“I hope Matt Gaetz doesn’t decide to run against Marco,” Barnett said. “We don’t need to pay for the same real estate twice. We have a Republican serving in the Senate. I think he’ll win again next year. I support Marco. I’d definitely like to see him serve a third term.”
Gaetz, a Panhandle Republican at the beginning of his third term in the House, is well known to conservative audiences on cable TV and social media as one of the most outspoken voices in support of President Donald Trump.
Gaetz was one of the loudest voices pushing for Congress not to accept electoral college votes from key states Trump lost and Joe Biden won. He argued strenuously against the House impeachment of Trump on Wednesday.
Rubio, who is in his second term as the state’s senior senator, has had a mixed relationship with Trump. Both men sought the 2016 Republican presidential nomination and criticized each other harshly during the campaign.
After Trump emerged as the victor — after he overwhelmingly defeated Rubio in the Florida presidential primary — the two reached a détente, which involved Rubio supporting just about everything Trump has said and done.
However, Rubio voted against attempts to reject the electoral votes from two Biden states after the Jan. 6 rampage of Trump supporters through the Capitol.
Budd said he and other Republicans had been dissatisfied with Rubio before that. He said he and other Republicans thought Rubio was not much of a presence on behalf of Republicans in the 2018 midterm elections, and that hurt some of the party’s candidates.
Budd said the mood of Republican primary voters favors outsiders. “I think two-thirds to 70% of the vote is going to go for the outsider. I think Matt Gaetz would be the outsider in this race.”
He pointed to the 2016 primary, in which Trump won 45.7% of the vote in Florida and Rubio won 27%. Trump won every county except Rubio’s home base of Miami-Dade. In November 2016, Rubio won re-election to the Senate with 52% of the vote and Trump won Florida with 49%.
He also pointed to an email survey — the results of which aren’t scientific — the club sent to its mailing list on Wednesday.
As of Friday afternoon, he said there were about 1,100 responses: Gaetz, 86%; Rubio, 14%. U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz, R-St Augustine Beach, 71%; Rubio, 29%.
Anybody but Rubio, 67%; Rubio, 33%.
Budd isn’t alone in his sentiments.
Scott Newmark, president of the Americans for Trump, a Broward-based political club, said there is “tremendous anger” over Rubio’s voting against the challenges to two states’ electoral votes and Scott for voting to accept one state and reject one state’s.
“This is a problem that will not easily be remedied,” Newmark said. “Rubio, who’s up in ’22, he’ll face a primary challenge for sure.”
Florine Goldfarb, of Pembroke Pines, a Republican Trump supporter who has been a Rubio supporter in the past said she hasn’t decided about 2022.
“I’m not sure about Rubio,” she said. “A lot of people aren’t happy with him.”
Rubio’s spokesman didn’t have any comment Friday in response to an inquiry about Budd’s comments.