Another political domino fell Friday as Republicans wait to see if U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio will run for re-election.
U.S. Rep. David Jolly, a Pinellas County Republican, said he will forgo a run for the U.S. Senate and seek to return to Congress in a race that likely will match him up against former Gov. Charlie Crist in November.
Jolly, who went to Congress after winning a 2014 special election, said in a statement he had “unfinished business” and will run in Democratic-leaning Congressional District 13 in Pinellas County.
“The business of our republic is never finished. Nor am I,” Jolly said. “The issues we face as a country are always evolving and the threats we face as a nation are all too real.”
Jolly’s announcement came after Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera announced last week he would end his Senate bid if Rubio, a longtime friend, decides to enter the race.
During a failed campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Rubio said he would not seek re-election this year to the Senate.
But with candidate qualifying this week, he has weighed the possibility of jumping into the race and has been urged to do so by people including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Jolly and Lopez-Cantera are among five Republicans — the others are U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis and businessmen Carlos Beruff and Todd Wilcox — who have traveled the state in recent months trying to line up support for Rubio’s seat.
In deciding to run for Congress, Jolly likely set up a high-profile contest against Crist, who was elected governor in 2006 as a Republican but in recent years became a Democrat.
Congressional District 13 was redrawn during the past year as a result of a long-running legal battle and is more favorable to Democrats than in the past.
Crist, whose St. Petersburg home was drawn into the new district, issued a release Friday in which he said he’d refrain from “name calling” in the style of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
But Friday afternoon Crist was using Jolly’s announcement in a fundraising email.
“We are now being challenged by a well-funded former Washington lobbyist,” Crist said in the request for contributions. “This is a man who has used money and power to try to take away women’s rights, drill off our beaches, and block common sense gun control.”
Jolly, who also worked as general counsel to the late C.W. Bill Young, a longtime congressman from Pinellas County, could face primary challengers. The best-known is retired Marine Corps Reserve Brig. Gen. Mark Bircher.