Republican Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera (right) with his boss Gov. Rick Scott
If you're looking for the next big GOP primary battle, it may just be in Florida. Rep. Ron DeSantis quickly consolidated support from big-named anti-establishment groups like the Club For Growth, FreedomWorks, and the Senate Conservatives Fund, and they're already preparing to go to war with likely Senate contender Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, a close friend of retiring Sen. Marco Rubio.
Politico's Marc Caputo tells us that D.C. Republicans aren't happy to see their old intra-party rivals mucking around in another race. Last year, this group targeted now-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and came close to unseating Sen. Thad Cochran. To add insult to injury, DeSantis' consulting firm Jamestown Associates was blacklisted by the NRSC for trying to torpedo McConnell. But it's unclear what, if anything, national Republicans will actually do to stop DeSantis besides anonymously complain.
Senate Conservatives Fund chieftain Ken Cuccinelli is already hitting Lopez-Cantera's record in the state House, accusing him of raising taxes, backing in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants, and voting for a 2009 budget that accepted stimulus money. Lopez-Cantera said that the state House tried to keep tax hikes and stimulus money out of the budget, which may be true but probably won't deter any attack ads.
But this primary probably won't shape up to be just a duel between the establishment-flavored Lopez-Cantera and the tea partying DeSantis. Potential candidate Rep. Jeff Miller is very socially conservative, and he could eat into DeSantis' support. But Miller, a 14-year congressional veteran and chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, can't exactly sell himself as an enemy of the establishment the way someone like the sophomore member DeSantis can. Ex-state Attorney General Bill McCollum, Rep. David Jolly, former Sen. George LeMieux and state Sen. Don Gaetz have also talked about running, and they could further complicate things.