Friends for 20 years, Marco Rubio and Florida Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera were at the scene of the Orlando massacre on Sunday when they had an unusually frank conversation about their political futures. 
 
 “You should reconsider running for your seat,” Lopez-Cantera told Rubio as they sat in the senator’s pickup truck about an hour before sunset, after witnessing the aftermath of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. 
 
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 Rubio was caught off guard. After all, Lopez-Cantera has been running for his Senate seat in a crowded GOP primary for more than a year — with Rubio’s encouragement. 
 
 Lopez-Cantera made clear he was still fully committed to running, even as he initiated a gut-check moment for both of them. Until then, Rubio had resisted the entreaties of Senate leaders and donors to rethink retiring from the Senate. Lopez-Cantera’s conversation removed one of the biggest obstacles to Rubio running again: a longtime friendship that he wouldn’t want to ruin due to political ambition. 
 
 “I don’t want you to feel like you have to say that because of outside pressure,” Rubio responded. 
 
 But Lopez-Cantera said he felt “compelled” to continue talking it through. The two of them were shaken by what they saw in Orlando, the bloody sidewalks and the ashen faces of local, state and federal authorities. 
 
 “This is bigger than me. And this isn’t about me. And it’s not about you. It’s about our country and this election,” Lopez-Cantera said to Rubio, recounting the conversation for Politico. “It’s deeply consequential. … In the current field, I’m the best candidate in the general election. But I’m not looking at this through rose-colored glasses.” 
 
 Bottom line, Lopez-Cantera said in the interview: “Nothing has changed. I’m still running. Marco isn’t.” 
 
 The filing deadline for the race is June 24, when Rubio is scheduled to hold a fundraiser for Lopez-Cantera. If Rubio decides to run, Lopez-Cantera won’t file. Right now, longtime friends of both men believe Rubio ultimately won’t run: The lure of a much bigger paycheck and proximity to his family will outweigh another term in the Senate. 
 
 But in the next breath, they say no one really knows what Rubio will do, except the senator himself — and even he might still be agonizing over the decision. 
 
 “I’ll go home later this week, I’ll have some time with my family,” Rubio told reporters in the Capitol on Wednesday as he headed to a classified briefing on the Orlando attacks. “If there’s been a change in our status, I’ll be sure to let everyone know.” 
 
 Polling shows Rubio is the strongest Republican in a potential race against the Democrats’ strongest candidate, Rep. Patrick Murphy, in a contest that could decide control of the Senate. 
 
 The Republican Senate race is crowded. And the full-court press to recruit Rubio to run for reelection has frozen fundraising and dampened Republican enthusiasm for all five major GOP candidates for the seat. None is as well known as Rubio. 
 
 Some Republican and conservative groups have suggested they won’t spend big in Florida, while more donors will give to oppose Rubio in order to hand him his second defeat in a year and brand him a double loser after his crushing loss in the presidential primary. 
 
 As part of the maneuvers to get Rubio to reverse course, Lopez-Cantera and allies of his and Rubio’s say the amount of disinformation spread by party insiders has been somewhere between staggering and absurd. 
 
 For weeks, Lopez-Cantera and Rubio had privately mocked the rumors of them striking a deal or hatching some elaborate plot. In one telling, Rubio would run for reelection, win and then resign before the 2020 presidential election cycle, at which point Lopez-Cantera would run for his seat. In another version, Lopez-Cantera agreed with moneyed interests to drop out of the Senate race, endorse Rubio and then run for chief financial officer in 2018. 
 
 All of it is false, Lopez-Cantera said. 
 
 “There is no deal. There is no plan,” Lopez-Cantera said. “None of it is true. Anyone who says that is lying and doesn’t know what they’re talking about.” 
 
 But those who haven’t been privy to the two friends’ talks have been deeply skeptical about what they’re up to. And if Rubio ultimately runs and Lopez-Cantera doesn’t, some of the rumors will appear true. 
 
 “You can’t tell me this hasn’t been orchestrated,” said one Republican who supports one of Lopez-Cantera’s rivals in the Senate race said, echoing Democrats. “Marco is running and you can talk about all the friendship stuff you want, but this shows Marco is all about Marco.” 
 
 The campaign of one of Lopez-Cantera’s Republican opponents, developer Carlos Beruff, fell for one of the rumor-filled reports and issued a statement Wednesday about Rubio in which the candidate said voters are “sick of career politicians and power brokers in Washington who care about one thing: holding on to power. But the voters of Florida will not obey them. They don’t get to pick our candidates.” 
 
 As for the other Republican candidates, U.S. Rep. David Jolly said he’ll announce his plans Friday. He might run for reelection to his Tampa Bay-area 13th Congressional District seat. Defense contractor Todd Wilcox indicated he’ll stay in the race with or without Rubio, and those close to U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis say he’d give strong consideration to running for reelection in the 6th Congressional District if Rubio runs. 
 
 Lopez-Cantera acknowledges that his decision to bring up the race — especially after witnessing the aftermath of the carnage at the Pulse nightclub — put unexpected extra pressure on Rubio. 
 
 Rubio’s plans since last spring were to win the White House or return home to West Miami, where he lives less than a half-hour away from Lopez-Cantera’s Coral Gables home. Rubio has hired Washington dealmaker Robert Barnett to field job offers and get the biggest payday possible, without lobbying or working on Wall Street. He also planned to hit the paid-speaker circuit. 
 
 After two years, if Hillary Clinton wins this election, Rubio is expected to begin mounting a challenge to her in 2020. 
 
 “Marco ran for president as a senator and we saw how that played out,” said one backer. “This is his chance to be at home, spend time with Jeannette [Rubio’s wife] and their kids and make some real money so he can put all four of them through private college in the Northeast if he wants to. People forget he’s the son of blue-collar immigrants. Things like this are more important to him than politics.” 
 
 Lopez-Cantera, who is also married and has two children, emphasized the importance of family to Rubio. 
 
 “Until I mentioned this, he was really committed to spending time with his kids, being able to be home for more than 10 days without having to go somewhere on the campaign trail or back to Washington. He looked forward to coaching his son’s football team,” Lopez-Cantera said. 
 
 Miami-Dade County Commissioner Steve Bovo, whose wife works as a policy adviser for Rubio, said he wasn’t surprised by Lopez-Cantera’s discussion. Bovo served in the Florida House when Lopez-Cantera was majority leader just after Rubio left as Florida House speaker, a post he held in 2007-08. 
 
 “Carlos is not only thinking about their friendship but the country,” Bovo said. “We all know each other, go to each others’ kids’ birthday parties. In the difficult business we’re in, we separate the friendship and the politics. But we never do anything to endanger our friendship.” 
 
 One Rubio insider said he believes Rubio should run for reelection because, as a senator, he’ll have more ability to affect policy he cares about, raise money and draw attention. 
 
 “From a political perspective, this is about having a platform,” the Republican said. “When CNN calls, does the booker want former Sen. Marco Rubio or do they want, say, current Sen. Tom Cotton?” 
 
 A member of the Committee on Foreign Relations and Select Committee on Intelligence, Rubio has made foreign policy a specialty. And, friends say, he’ll miss getting classified briefings and being in a position to do something about it. 
 
 About 12 hours after Rubio and Lopez-Cantera spoke on Sunday, the senator was interviewed by conservative radio show host Hugh Hewitt, who likes to talk about foreign policy and the threat of terrorism. Hewitt unexpectedly switched gears on Rubio by asking whether the terrorist attack changed “in any way your resolve not to seek reelection.” 
 
 Briefly caught flat-footed, Rubio said “I’ve been deeply impacted by it. I think when it visits your home state, and it impacts a community you know well, it really gives you pause to think a little bit about, you know, your service to your country and where you can be most useful to your country.” 
 
 “I have a friend of mine who is running for the U.S. Senate,” Rubio said later. “So I want to be fair, Hugh. I haven’t thought about it in that context. I really don’t want to link the two things right now, because I don’t want politics to intrude in all of this.” 
 
 By then, though, it was too late. 
 
 “I brought this up. It wasn’t mutual,” Lopez-Cantera said. “He is in a position where he will make a decision. We’re friends. We support each other.” 
 
 
 
 
 
 Seung Min Kim contributed to this report. ||||| 16:21 
 
 Marco Rubio has less than 10 days to decide if he wants to run for re-election to the Senate. And now the Florida senator has received the blessing of the longtime friend who has spent a year seeking to replace him. 
 
 Marco Rubio. Photograph: Paul Sancya/AP 
 
 Carlos Lopez-Cantera, the lieutenant governor of Florida, has been close to Rubio for two decades. He had all but secured Rubio’s coveted endorsement while running for his Senate seat in a crowded Republican primary. 
 
 But in the wake of the Orlando terrorist attack, Lopez-Cantera told Rubio he should after all reconsider a bid for a second term. Politico reported earlier today that while Lopez-Cantera plans to remain in the race for now, but felt “compelled” to discuss the election with Rubio after the two visited the site of the deadly massacre at Pulse nightclub on Sunday. 
 
 After Lopez-Cantera’s endorsement, Rubio confirmed that he is reconsidering running for re-election. 
 
 “I’ll go home later this week and I’ll have time with my family. If there’s a change in status, I’ll be sure let everyone know,” Rubio told reporters on Capitol Hill. 
 
 Rubio has long vowed not to seek re-election - but after his failed presidential run, top Republicans also orchestrated a ‘Draft Rubio’ campaign of their own. The Florida senator, according to most polling, would be the strongest Republican candidate to face Patrick Murphy, the congressman who is Democrats’ most likely contender. 
 
 Rubio for weeks insisted his thinking had not changed, but also found himself pondering his future after Orlando. 
 
 The attack “really gives you pause to think a little bit about your service to your country and where you can be most useful to your country,” he told conservative radio show Hugh Hewitt. 
 
 The deadline to file for the Florida Senate race is24 June. Whatever Rubio decides, Democrats are signaling they are ready - warning through press reports that will spend as much as $20 million to defeat him and, as they see it, also derail any ambitions Rubio holds to seek the presidency once more. ||||| Ending weeks of political speculation, Marco Rubio announced Wednesday he has changed his mind and will run for re-election to the U.S. Senate, reversing his pledge to return to private life after his presidential campaign collapsed three months ago. 
 
 His decision could give Republicans an edge in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country — and keep Rubio in the public eye ahead of the next presidential election in 2020. 
 
 Rubio cited a sense of duty to try to remain in Congress under either President Donald Trump or President Hillary Clinton, two candidates he considers mediocre. 
 
 “No matter who’s elected president, there’s reason to worry. If it’s Hillary Clinton, you know we’re going to have four more years of the same failed economic policies, four more years of the same failed foreign policy,” he told the Miami Herald. “The prospect of a Trump presidency is also worrisome to me in many ways.” 
 
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 Rubio has said he’ll vote for Trump. If Trump wins, Rubio said that as a senator he would “encourage him in the right direction, but if it’s necessary, stand up to him.” 
 
 “It’s no secret that I have significant disagreements with Donald,” he said. “And his positions on many key issues are unknown, and many of the statements — especially about women and minorities — are statements that I find not just offensive but unacceptable.” 
 
 National Republicans fearful of losing Senate control to Democrats mounted a campaign to keep Rubio on the ballot for Florida’s swing seat. He consented just two days before Friday’s qualifying deadline, pointing to the Senate’s “check and balance on the excesses of the president.” 
 
 SHARE COPY LINK Marco Rubio bids farewell to his presidential campaign at Florida International University after losing the Florida primary to Donald Trump on Tuesday, March 15, 2016. 
 
 He made no commitments about his future ambitions, declining to say if he’d serve a full, six-year term — or run again for president in 2020 or 2024. 
 
 “What I’m done making is unequivocal statements about anything at this point,” he said. “I don’t even know who the next president’s going to be. But I will say this to you: If I wanted to run for president in 2020, running for re-election in 2016 was probably not the best choice to make politically.” 
 
 Rubio’s decision carries some political risk. He has only a couple of months to organize a campaign and pitch himself again to voters, some of whom start casting ballots in July for the Aug. 30 primary. If he wins, he could substantially boost his chance to become a future presidential candidate. If he loses, he undermines his political career with two major failures in a single year, perhaps forcing him to abandon his White House ambitions. 
 
 “It’s never been a goal of mine to lose two elections in a year,” Rubio said. “It’s going to be a tough race. I have no illusions about that.” 
 
 Rubio’s announcement quickly upended the GOP primary contest to replace him: Two of his would-be rivals, Florida Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera and U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, left the race, with DeSantis choosing to run for re-election instead. Two other competitors, Sarasota developer Carlos Beruff and Orlando defense contractor Todd Wilcox, remain — though Rubio became the instant front-runner. 
 
 With his widespread name recognition and broad donor network, Rubio would pose a stiffer challenge to the leading Democratic candidates, U.S. Reps. Patrick Murphy of Jupiter and Alan Grayson of Orlando, who had benefited from the lack of a GOP leader. Rubio’s announcement came within hours of the release of a new Quinnipiac University poll that showed he’s the only Republican with a shot at defeating Grayson or Murphy in November, when the electorate will likely skew Democratic. 
 
 Democrats accused Rubio of playing politics with the crucial seat. 
 
 Marco Rubio abandoned his constituents, and now he’s treating them like a consolation prize. U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter 
 
 “Marco Rubio abandoned his constituents, and now he’s treating them like a consolation prize,” Murphy said in a statement. “From missing the most votes of any Florida senator in nearly 50 years, to seeking to ban abortion even in cases of rape or incest, to repeatedly voting against closing the terrorist gun loophole, Rubio is proving he is only out for himself.” 
 
 Grayson’s campaign manager, Mike Ceraso, in a statement called Rubio “No Show Marco,” a reference to the senator’s many missed votes while on the campaign trail. 
 
 Rubio had been adamant after his presidential bid failed that he would not return to Washington, which he has disdained as dysfunctional and ineffective. The 45-year-old seemed intent on a spending a few lucrative years in the private sector. 
 
 Yet his reversal is hardly surprising. 
 
 Rubio went back to Capitol Hill after his crushing March 15 loss in the Florida primary with renewed interest in the job — and an aggressive public-relations campaign to highlight it. He granted numerous interviews about his work. He traveled extensively in Florida, focusing on issues such as Everglades restoration and Zika prevention. And he repeated over and over again, often unprompted, that he didn’t “hate” the Senate. 
 
 Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the National Republican Senatorial Committee took it all as a sign that Rubio might be open to their overtures. 
 
 In interviews, Rubio started sounding increasingly like a man sitting out the race chiefly because his friend was in it — not because he wasn’t interested. “Maybe,” he told CNN in May. 
 
 Then, after last week’s massacre of 49 people at an Orlando nightclub, Rubio told a radio talk-show host he’d been given “pause” to reconsider his Senate role. He met with Lopez-Cantera, who gave Rubio the go-ahead to run. “Had that conversation not happened,” Rubio said of his talk with Lopez-Cantera, “this conversation we’re having now would have never happened.” 
 
 On Monday, Rubio voted against a measure to block gun sales to suspected terrorists. 
 
 Democrats charged Rubio with using the mass shooting to neatly justify his political plans. Rubio, who was careful not to mention the tragedy in the Herald interview, said Orlando made him think, “Where is it that you want to be in life, and what do you find rewarding?” 
 
 Though Rubio seemed to deliberately position himself so he could seek re-election, he and his friends contend the move was never calculated and the timing wasn’t opportunistic. Until just a couple of weeks ago, they say, Rubio had no intention to return to the Senate. Several friends said when Rubio started reconsidering, they advised him to stick to his original plan. 
 
 “He’s got four kids under the age of 16,” said Miami-Dade County Commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo, who served with Rubio in the Florida House of Representatives. “Politically it’s probably the riskiest thing he could do.... It’s no shoo-in for Marco.” 
 
 He made up his mind with his family over Father’s Day weekend, Rubio said. The senator, who’s always had a knack for building political suspense, extended the drama by taking until Wednesday to make an announcement. His backers had said they expected a decision by Sunday. Then Monday. Then Tuesday. 
 
 The prolonged intrigue set off a flurry of political dominoes among Florida Republicans. 
 
 U.S. Rep. David Jolly of Indian Shores left the Senate race Friday and will instead seek re-election to his St. Petersburg congressional seat, challenging former Gov. Charlie Crist in a redrawn district that now favors Democrats. DeSantis, of Ponte Vedra Beach, will run again in Florida’s 6th congressional district. Lopez-Cantera, of Miami, will remain lieutenant governor. 
 
 He’s doing this for the greater good. Florida Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera 
 
 “He’s doing this for the greater good,” Lopez-Cantera said Wednesday. “Before today, I was our best chance to keep the seat Republican. But if Marco runs then he’s our best chance. That’s more important.” 
 
 He urged Beruff and Wilcox to leave the race. Beruff and Wilcox, though — who are both independently wealthy — say they’re prepared to challenge Rubio in the primary. 
 
 Beruff has indicated he’s prepared to tar Rubio, who was a tea-party favorite when he was first elected to office in 2010, as part of the Republican establishment that many voters now disdain. 
 
 “Career politicians like Marco Rubio worry more about keeping the job than doing the job, and are constantly looking for their next political promotion,” Beruff said in a statement Wednesday. 
 
 Outside of Beruff and Wilcox, however, Florida GOP leaders and down-ballot candidates were giddy at the prospect of having Rubio back on the ticket. They see Rubio, the only Senate candidate who has run statewide, as a buffer to Trump in Florida. The presumptive GOP nominee has seen his popularity fall in recent polls, and party leaders worry he could be a drag on state and local races. 
 
 Clinton leads Trump 47-39 percent in Florida, a Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday showed — her largest lead since the pollster starting asking voters about a Clinton-Trump match-up in 2015. 
 
 “I’m very encouraged by the news Sen. Rubio will seek re-election,” said state Rep. Jose Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, who is hoping to become House speaker from 2018-2020. “His decision will have important ramifications on the election and, more importantly, on our ability to appoint a Supreme Court justice who will hold to our Constitution.” 
 
 Political groups plan to spend tens of millions of dollars in the Florida Senate race. Rubio will have to start fundraising from scratch. As of the end of May, he had only about $24,000 left over in his presidential campaign account and was about $1.9 million in debt. 
 
 But major Republican groups are also expected to step in to help Rubio. That’s part of the promise party leaders made in courting him for re-election. 
 
 “There is literally one person in America who has the ability to dramatically increase the chances of Republicans keeping the majority — Marco Rubio,” said Steven Law, president of the Senate Leadership Fund and a former McConnell chief of staff. “If Marco’s in for Florida, we’re in for Florida, it’s just that simple.” 
 
 Herald/Times reporters Michael Auslen, Kristen Clark and Jeremy Wallace, and Tampa Bay Times Washington bureau chief Alex Leary, contributed to this report.
– The main obstacle keeping Marco Rubio from seeking re-election to his Senate seat just disappeared. The prospect of Rubio doing so gained traction in the wake of the Orlando shooting, but he continued to insist that he wouldn't run against his friend already in the race, Carlos Lopez-Cantera. Now, however, Lopez-Cantera himself is publicly giving Rubio the all-clear, reports Politico. He says he and Rubio discussed it in recent days, with Lopez-Cantera encouraging him to consider changing his mind. “I don’t want you to feel like you have to say that because of outside pressure,” he quotes Rubio as responding. The incumbent told reporters on Wednesday that he'd go home this week to spend time with his family and consider his next steps. Rumors are swirling that the pair have some sort of plan—perhaps for Rubio to win the seat over a Democrat (Republicans believe he has the best shot), then resign and allow Lopez-Cantera to run before the 2020 presidential campaign. But Lopez-Cantera says that's not the case. "Until I mentioned this, he was really committed to spending time with his kids, being able to be home for more than 10 days without having to go somewhere," he says. As of now, "nothing has changed,” he adds. "I'm still running. Marco isn't." Rubio's decision isn’t expected until the weekend at the earliest, per the Wall Street Journal; he has until June 24 to file for re-election. If he does so, Lopez-Cantera won't run, says Politico.