GOP super-PAC to spend $15M for Rubio

A major Republican super-PAC is promising another $15 million to support Sen. Marco Rubio’s Florida reelection bid. 

The Senate Leadership Fund will reserve $15 million for Rubio’s campaign, with $10.5 million going to television ads and the rest for radio and mail pieces.

{mosads}Politico first reported the planned spending. 

Rubio is the heavy favorite in the Aug. 30 GOP primary against businessman Carlos Beruff. If he wins, he’ll face off against either Rep. Patrick Murphy or Rep. Alan Grayson, both incumbent Democratic lawmakers. 

Murphy is considered the favorite to win the Democratic primary, with Rubio holding the edge in the potential general election match-up. Rubio is outperforming GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump in the state and leads Murphy by a margin of 47 percent to 41 percent in RealClearPolitics’s average of recent general election polls. 

On top of Rubio’s polling lead and the Senate Leadership Fund’s investment, the Florida senator will likely enter the general with strong fundraising numbers. His campaign told the Tampa Bay Times Thursday that he raised $5.5 million since his late June decision to run for reelection, following his failed presidential bid. 

Rubio’s strong standing led the donor network led by the influential Koch brothers earlier this week to cancel plans to spend over half a million dollars on his behalf.

“Rubio is running strong in Florida, so we are realigning our television spend to other areas for this week,” Koch network spokesman James Davis said.