Marco Rubio’s campaign is premised on the idea that he’s the candidate best suited to bridge the divide between conservatives and the GOP establishment — if he can stay in the race long enough to make that case against better-funded opponents like Jeb Bush.

Enter Norman Braman, an 82-year-old self-made billionaire with a fondness for Rubio and an equally intense distaste for Bush.


Braman, a former owner of the Philadelphia Eagles football franchise, is poised to occupy the sugar-daddy role for Rubio that, in 2012, Sheldon Adelson played for Newt Gingrich, and Foster Friess played for Rick Santorum: the megacontributor who kept their candidacies afloat even after other donors had written them off.

The Miami businessman, Braman’s friends say, is considering spending anywhere from $10 million to $25 million — and possibly even more — on Rubio’s behalf, a cash stake that could potentially alter the course of the Republican race by enabling the Florida senator to wage a protracted fight for the nomination.

The investment is as much a reflection of Braman’s regard for Rubio as it is of his distaste for the GOP’s other Florida-based presidential hopeful. Over the past decade, Braman, who has a fondness for art, American history and luxury cars, has nursed a grudge against Bush that he’s now positioned to act on with a vengeance.

At issue is Bush’s 2004 veto of $2 million in state funds that had been allocated for the Braman Breast Cancer Institute. Braman had established the center at the University of Miami two years earlier, after his wife’s sister was diagnosed with the disease, seeding it with $5 million of his own funds.

“I have nothing against Jeb Bush personally,” Braman told POLITICO this week. “I was disappointed with the veto, which I was never given an explanation for. Who the hell is against breast cancer research, especially with what he allowed to become law?”

The veto was part of a broader Bush effort in 2004 to cut state spending — an accomplishment he’s spoken about on the campaign trail. That year, the governor, then in his second term, approved a $58 billion budget after lining out roughly $350 million in spending. The $2 million proposed for Braman’s breast cancer research center was part of that.

Braman, however, is the worst kind of political enemy: He’s highly motivated, civic-minded and in possession of unlimited resources.

He’s a fixture on the South Florida political scene, throwing his money at a number of causes to advance his anti-tax, small government views. In 2012, he provided financial support to a slate of challengers to incumbents on the Miami-Dade County Commission. A year earlier, he sponsored a successful effort to recall Miami-Dade’s mayor, Carlos Álvarez. He also waged an expensive but unsuccessful legal battle against public works projects in Miami, including the construction of a new Florida Marlins baseball stadium.

Braman’s friends say his antipathy for Bush, which has simmered in the years since the 2004 veto, is helping to fuel his interest in getting behind Rubio.

One friend of the billionaire, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, said the businessman relished the prospect of delivering some payback to the former governor. “Norman Braman is going to be a thorn in Jeb’s side,” this person said.

Braman is both a benefactor and a friend to Rubio, and their close relationship dates back to when the now-presidential candidate was ascending the ranks of the state Legislature. Over dinners at Braman’s Indian Creek Island mansion, which is adorned with priceless artwork and Civil War artifacts, the two bonded over everything from their shared love of football to their affinity for Israel. He employs Rubio’s wife, Jeanette, part time through his charity, the Braman Family Foundation. After Rubio was elected to the Senate in 2010 — a race into which Braman and his wife, Irma, poured nearly $10,000 — the two families traveled together to Israel.

In his recently published memoir, Rubio dedicated an entire paragraph of the acknowledgments to Braman and suggested that he had become a father-like figure to him. Braman’s “advice, interest in my growth as a father and husband and pride in my accomplishments remind me of the role my grandfather and father once played,” he wrote.

Braman, whose net worth is said to hover around $2 billion, wouldn’t detail his 2016 plans but said that initial figures would become public soon. Jeff Sadosky, a spokesman for Rubio’s newly formed super PAC, Conservative Solutions, declined to comment.

The investment, whatever the size, will put Braman at odds with much of the Florida donor class. Many of the state’s wealthiest political givers are backing Bush, who has emerged as the establishment favorite. But those close to Braman say he’s grown to adore Rubio and admires his up-from-the-bootstraps life story — an experience with which he personally identifies.

“Norman’s a guy who likes people who are dynamic, who are interesting,” said Mike Haridopolos, a Braman friend and former president of the Florida Senate. “Ever since I’ve known him, he’s been friends with Marco.”

Bush supporters recognize that Braman, who has already contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to various Rubio-related political causes over the years, could play an outsize role in the campaign.

“If Braman does what he wants to do, that’s a big damn deal,” said Mac Stipanovich, a prominent lobbyist in the state who formerly worked for Bush and is supporting the former governor’s presidential bid.

Al Cardenas, a former Florida Republican Party chairman and a prominent Bush backer, conceded the same. “Norman is my friend, a respected leader in the community and tough adversary,” he said. “We’ll have our hands full.”

Braman, who contributed $500 to Bush’s successful 1998 campaign for governor, said simply that he’s soured on the idea of a Bush presidency, arguing that he found him insufficiently conservative and a figure of the past.

“I don’t believe in monarchies, and I don’t believe in dynasties,” he said.

A Bush spokesman, Tim Miller, wouldn’t comment other than to say the campaign wouldn’t “be responding to potshots from other candidates’ donors.”