Rep. Alan Grayson – the fiery leftist from the great state of Florida – is likely to run for Senate in 2016, he said in a recent interview:
Outspoken U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson will “probably yes” run for U.S. Senate in 2016, leading to an ideological primary battle against the announced candidate Patrick Murphy, a more centrist Democrat.Grayson, an Orlando Democrat popular in liberal circles, made the comment during an online Democracy Now! video.
A number of factors have ostensibly come together for the progressive firebrand. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz isn’t running for the seat (an apparent precondition for him actually getting into the race) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) isn’t running for re-election (which of course greatly improves his electoral prospects). The seat is now open.
But as I noted a few months back, when Grayson first expressed interest in making the jump from the lower to the upper chamber, the outspoken Democrat is (how to put this?) strikingly uncharitable to his political opponents and purposefully offensive. As far as I know his strange legal woes haven’t entirely gone away, either. So can he really hope to launch a viable, statewide campaign with his ugly past statements (and indeed bigamy court proceedings) hanging over his head? That might be a bit of a problem.
Best of luck, Congressman.