Jeb Bush attacked Marco Rubio in the last primary debate for missing several Senate votes while he runs his campaign, but there have been several other Senators — both Democrats and Republicans — who have also missed many votes while seeking higher office, a new report says.
On the Democratic side, both Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden missed between 75 and 85 percent of the floor votes on the Senate floor when they were about a year away from the general election in 2008, reports
Vox.com, and then-Sen. Barack Obama missed almost 90 percent. He missed just 37 percent the following quarter, however.
During the debate, Rubio called out Sen. John McCain while answering Bush's complaints, as records show the Arizona Republican missed almost all the votes in the last seven months of the 2008 campaign.
When Biden and Clinton were no longer in the 2008 campaign, though, their voting records improved drastically, with Biden missing just 4.7 percent in the quarter after he dropped out and Clinton missing just 14.9 percent.
Other currently sitting Senators have missed votes, reports
Politifact, but not as many as Rubio, between Jan. 1 and Oct. 28:
- Rubio, 99 votes missed;
- Lindsey Graham, 79;
- Ted Cruz, 70;
- Rand Paul, 14;
- Bernie Sanders, 10;
Rubio missed 18 of 20 votes in October, drawing the ire of not only Bush, but a large newspaper in Florida,
The Sun-Sentinel, which last week called on him to resign his Senate seat.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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