Marco Rubio has a slight cash advantage going into the home stretch. | AP Photo DSCC yanks spending from Florida Senate race

Senate Democrats pulled their last chunk of remaining ad reservations in Florida on Monday night, leaving Rep. Patrick Murphy on his own in his race against Sen. Marco Rubio.

The decision to slash the final remaining week of reservations in Florida by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee came before Monday night's debate between Murphy (D) and Rubio (R), according to a source familiar with party strategy. The party's campaign arm initially reserved $10 million in ads there, but that came before Rubio's reversal on his plans to retire. Senate Majority PAC also pulled $6 million in remaining ads this month after spending about $3 million on the race.


While the DSCC and Senate Majority PAC have been trimming back on ad buys for weeks, their latest move zeroes out their commitment over the last 3 weeks of the election, even as polls show the race tightening. While Murphy hasn't led a public poll since June, Rubio's margin is not overwhelming: He was up just 49-47 in a Quinnipiac poll released on Tuesday.

Rubio has a slight cash advantage going as of mid-August, $4.6 million to Murphy's $4 million. But the GOP's Senate Leadership Fund could tip the ad balance Rubio's way; the group is in the midst of $10.8 million fall campaign,

Democrats' decision to cut bait in Florida is reflection of the belief at the DSCC and in the leadership offices that races in North Carolina and Missouri are more winnable. Strategists reason that they may be able to knock off both Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina and Roy Blunt of Missouri for the same cost as taking on Rubio, who is seen a stronger candidate.

Still, the decision is not unanimously popular among senior Democrats. One said Tuesday that the DSCC was being "conservative" rather than trying to knock out "Republican's brightest star" — someone who could also run for president in 2020.

Democrats said the decision to pull support from Murphy was not predicated on his debate performance. The two candidates debated for the first time on Monday night, with the Republican incumbent attacking Murphy, Clinton and his own party’s presidential nominee in equal measure and even bringing up the fact that Murphy’s family has done business with Trump.

Murphy, meanwhile, attacked Rubio for continuing to say he would vote for Trump, for his opposition to abortion rights and for his history of skipping votes and committee hearings.

Scott Bland contributed to this report.