Two new polls have landed today concerning Florida Senator Marco Rubio. Each presents two possible paths for his future.
While one survey shows that his reelection to Senate is pretty much a given, the other suggests that he might actually have a chance at securing the Republican nomination for president.
The presidential poll is from the Wall Street Journal and NBC News. Rubio has faded recently in head-to-head match-ups of presumptive nominees, but this particular poll is a bit of a different animal. It asks GOP primary voters which candidates they could see themselves supporting.
Turns out 56 percent say they could imagine supporting Rubio. Compare that to current presumed front runner Jeb Bush. Only 49 percent said they could imagine supporting him. Rand Paul also notched 49 percent, while Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker notched 52 percent.
In other words, Rubio has a much higher ceiling for support within the party than his possible competitors. It's still very early, and that could all change, but there's a reason Rubio is very seriously considering a run.
The only problem is that to do that, he would have to forgo reelection to the Senate and that would be a near guaranteed cakewalk.
A Mason-Dixon poll finds that Rubio would beat Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz 56 percent to 36 percent in a hypothetical matchup. He would also declare victory over Rep. Patrick Murphy 50 to 38 percent. (Yes, Democrats, Murphy does noticeably better than Wasserman-Schultz in the early polls).
Though, if Rubio did run for president, Republicans would have a backup in current state CFO Jeff Atwater. He's leading Wasserman-Schultz 45 to 35, and Murphy 46 to 32 in the poll.
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