Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) will return to Washington after decisively turning back Democrat challenger Rep. Val Demings’ (D-Fla.) bid for an upset in their U.S. Senate race.
According to a projection by Decision Desk HQ, Rubio garnered 56.4 percent, 3.7 million votes, to Demings’s 42.5 percent, 2.8 million, with 86 percent of the votes counted as of press time, to secure a third six-year term in the Senate, and his second as the state’s senior member in the upper chamber.
The Rubio-Demings race was one of 34 U.S. Senate elections on ballots across the country, but the Florida Republican was never considered among vulnerable incumbents being tested in midterm elections where both parties hoped to secure a majority to break the current 50-50 deadlock….