More than 250 individuals who donated to Sen. Marco Rubio's, R-Fla., Senate re-election campaign have declined to transfer their contributions to his presidential committee, according to a new report by Bloomberg News.
Unlike Republican Sens. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, who have continued to campaign for Senate re-election while simultaneously running for president, Rubio is focused solely on his presidential bid. When the Florida Republican declared his candidacy, he also announced his plans to retire from the Senate in 2017, forcing his now-dissolved re-election campaign to issue 267 refunds to previous donors.
However, only seven of the 267 refund recipients fulfilled Rubio's request to transfer their previous donations to his presidential campaign committee, according to Bloomberg.
The other 260 individuals either pocketed their reimbursements or contributed the money to other presidential candidates. An estimated 64 people who had been refunded by Rubio's Senate campaign donated a sum of $195,800 to his competitors, according to the report.
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, who served as governor in the same state where Rubio holds his Senate seat, received roughly $98,000 from 33 individuals who had previously donated to Rubio. Other recipients of redirected donations include Sens. Graham and Cruz, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. Six of Rubio's previous donors also contributed a combined total of $21,200 to Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton.
The author of the report explains that some individuals who supported Rubio as a senator believe is he is ill-prepared for the presidency.
Marie Gerwin, a previous donor to Rubio, contributed $500 in her husband's name to Carson's campaign after receiving a refund of $120 from the Florida senator.
"We liked him when he was running for the Senate, but as president? I don't think so," Gerwin told Bloomberg.
Despite the redirected donations, Rubio has proved to be one of the top fundraisers in the 2016 presidential campaign so far. He ended the second fundraising quarter with $9.8 million cash-on-hand, according to FEC filings. Conservative Solutions PAC, Rubio's principal outside support group, has also hauled in more than $16 million since April, as previously reported by the Washington Examiner.