Florida's junior US Senator Marco Rubio, like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, commanded a great deal of respect with conservative activists. In 2010, Tea Party elements who helped propel his outsider candidacy for the US Senate against more Establishmentarian Republican governor Charlie Crist and the fledging Democratic candidate who had no chance of winning in the Republican leaning Sunshine state. After Christie and McDonnell's gubernatorial victories especially in a watershed year for conservative insurgents across the country fed up with Big Government getting bigger under President Obama.
