Florida Sen. Marco Rubio appeared to rule out a 2020 presidential run during a radio interview on Wednesday.
Rubio, who decided to run for re-election in the Senate after dropping his presidential bid and has taken heat from his opponent Rep. Patrick Murphy over his potential presidential ambitions, was asked on News Radio 970 WFLA how Floridians could be sure he is going to serve a complete term and not run for president again in 2020.
“First of all, because I’ve said it. Not only am I going to serve for six years, I’ve been honest with people, the things I want to achieve, some may take longer than six years to achieve. So that’s what my focus is on, 100%,” Rubio said.
During the Florida Senate debate earlier this week, Rubio said he’d serve his full term, but added “god willing,” leading many to believe he wasn’t completely ruling out a presidential run.
In the interview on Wednesday, Rubio made clear he does not currently hold any presidential ambitions.
“If I wanted to run for something else, I wouldn’t have run for Senate,” Rubio continued. “My opponent keeps saying I’m gonna run for president. If I wanted to run for president in four years, I would have just stayed out of this race and started running on November the 9, which a lot of other people are going to do. I wouldn’t have run for re-election at the last minute in the toughest swing state in the country, in a year as uncertain as this one.”
Rubio also said several times during his 2016 campaign that he would not seek re-election in the Senate, but later reversed course and announced his re-election bid in late June.