Carlos Beruff says he is viable alternative to Marco Rubio
With just more than six weeks until the August primary, Senate candidate Carlos Beruff said he plans to spend “a whole lot of money every week” in ads in his attempt to beat Sen. Marco Rubio.
“The big issue for me is beating Marco Rubio in the primary because of his high name recognition,” the Manatee County homebuilder said Friday at the Lakewood Ranch Republican Club luncheon. “When he got into the race, you have to stop, do a bunch of analysis and polls, to make sure that you know what direction you are going to take in message. I’ve got to get my message in 30 seconds on television and do the best shot that we can to get name recognition.”
Once Rubio announced plans to run for re-election, other Republican candidates left the race, and Beruff said the public doesn’t realize he stayed in.
“They will know over the next three weeks that there is a viable alternative, and we believe the numbers will start crashing on Mr. Rubio pretty aggressively once they see that,” he said, adding it is a “false narrative” Rubio is the only candidate to beat Patrick Murphy, one of the Democratic candidates running for the seat.
On Thursday, a super PAC backing Rubio announced its first TV ad, which will attack Beruff as a “Charlie Crist Republican.” The ad will air statewide beginning this weekend, according to the PAC.
If Beruff is not successful in his bid for the Senate, he said Friday he has “no intention” of running in the future.
“I am not Marco Rubio that says I ain’t going to run for the Senate and then get back in,” he said. “I want to do this and if it doesn’t, I’ll go back to the most important thing in my life: my family. You have to sacrifice for this great country. Somebody has to do it; it might as well be somebody that can actually do something instead of talk.”
During his 30-minute speech, Beruff discussed a number of topics, including Donald Trump, immigrants and terrorism.
Regarding the presumptive GOP nominee, Beruff said he will do whatever he can to help Trump get elected, and “be an incredibly strong lieutenant for Donald Trump because he is the commander in chief.”
Of Rubio, Beruff said, “So what you don’t want is a senator who is questioning the president. He’s not qualified to carry the man’s dirty socks as far as I am concerned, yet he is going to check Mr. Trump.”
On immigrants, Beruff said he welcomes them legally through a process.
“If we are all Americans first, this country can go back to what made it great,” he said. “We all pull together, but we can’t be something else first.”
Claire Aronson: 941-745-7024, @Claire_Aronson
Other quotables from Carlos Beruff on Friday:
“The British people were right on the money three weeks ago. It was a clear expression of we are just not going to be just another country anymore.”
“I believe that Barack Obama is directly responsible for the terrorists’ attacks in this country.”
“How could we have a president who lied to the face of men and women who lost their children when she knew she was lying? That alone disqualifies her to be a janitor as far as I’m concerned.”
“I hope we will be celebrating together on Aug. 30 because the celebration will be at my office real close by.”
“John Kerry is an idiot.”
This story was originally published July 15, 2016 at 3:56 PM with the headline "Carlos Beruff says he is viable alternative to Marco Rubio."