Carlos Beruff is not mincing words when it comes to Marco Rubio’s decision to run for reelection after spending nearly two years saying he would not do so if he ran for president.
“People have to go [to Congress] for a purpose that is bigger than themselves, and not for their own self interest — and that’s what Marco Rubio is doing,” Beruff says in a Wednesday phone interview with National Review.
Beruff, a wealthy home-builder who jumped into the Senate race when it was an open seat, has said he will continue his campaign regardless of Rubio’s reentry into the race. And over the past week, he has positioned himself as a vocal antagonist of the incumbent. In a ten-minute interview, he attacks Rubio as a “career politician” and a representative of the “status quo” who will “continue to be beholden to that whole [Republican] party apparatus [in Washington, D.C],” and who is trying to retain a job for which he “didn’t show up” during much of his presidential campaign. It’s a preview of the attacks Rubio will have to contend with between now and the primary on August 30.
Rubio’s reversal does not change Beruff’s plans one iota. “We’re all in. I made that decision long ago,” he says.
Besides, he says, he believes Rubio’s decision was the result of an orchestrated plan, one that he saw coming some time ago. “This isn’t a surprise. . . . It’s not like, ‘Oh my god, I woke up this morning and it’s a big deal.” He adds: “It had nothing to do with the Orlando event that he’s now purporting made a big difference in his life. That’s all B.S.”
Beruff was leading in the polls when it was a race between him and four other contenders who were not well known state-wide. But with Rubio back on the ballot, he is now an underdog heading into the August 30 primary. There is also a third candidate, Todd Wilcox, who has not yet announced his plans in the wake of Rubio’s reentry, but has said in the past he would stay in regardless. One thing Beruff has going for him: the ability, and willingness, to self-fund his campaign.
“From day one, I knew the financial resources and I made sure I had what’s necessary to get the job done to get my message to the citizens of Florida,” he says. According to the Miami Herald, he told staff he’d be willing to put $10 to $15 million of his own money into the campaign.
Beruff has cast himself as the Donald Trump of the Senate race, and his brash style has drawn comparisons to Trump, whether he wants them or not. “There is only one Donald Trump, but people make comparisons because I’m blunt,” Beruff says. In business, he says, “People don’t have time to speak in prose. We have to deliver a message, get it done, execute — otherwise you don’t have a business. . . . Politicians can talk and talk and talk until they’re silly and they do nothing.”
Rubio has vocally criticized Trump, hoping to separate himself somewhat from the party’s presidential nominee. Beruff has done the opposite, embracing some of Trump’s more divisive policy proposals, like a ban on travel from the Middle East. Nonetheless, last month, Trump tweeted encouragement to Rubio, urging: “Run Marco!” If Trump were to re-up that support for Rubio, it could undermine Beruff’s contention that he is the outsider choice in the race.
Still, Beruff says that would have no impact on his plans. “At the end of the day I think Donald Trump has got a campaign for president, which is obviously the most important in the country, and he is a very smart guy and that’s where his energy is gonna lie,” Beruff says. “I don’t think at the end of the day he’s gonna endorse anybody, but it doesn’t matter to me. It’s my money; Donald’s not giving it to me.”
One thing that might impact Beruff’s plans in the next few weeks: His wife is due to give birth on Saturday, though Beruff says he doesn’t expect the baby will actually come until next week. “That might derail the campaign a bit,” he laughs.
Beruff presents himself as someone with nothing but disdain for Rubio and the other politicians in Washington, D.C., whom he derides as “a political class in Washington that does not represent” the people back home. Rubio, he says, has been elsewhere for six years, and has not been representing the people in Florida — “except in his favorite places.”
“I think there’s something in the water in Washington,” Beruff opines.
If that’s what happens to people when they go to Washington, why would Beruff want to be a Senator?
“I’ll bring my own water,” he says. “I can afford to bring my own water.”
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated since its initial publication.