Story highlights Marco Rubio participated in a debate for his Senate seat Monday night

The Florida freshman said Trump should stop making the 'rigged election' claim

(CNN) Sen. Marco Rubio is flatly rejecting Donald Trump's claims the election is being "rigged" against the Republican presidential nominee.

"This election is not being rigged," Rubio said Monday during a debate with his Democratic senatorial challenger Rep. Patrick Murphy. "There is no evidence behind any of this, so this should not continue to be said."

"We have 67 counties in this state, each of which conduct their own elections. I promise you there is not a 67-county conspiracy to rig this election," Rubio added.

With the comments, Rubio joined a growing chorus of Republican lawmakers and officials who have rejected Trump's "rigged" claims, even as the nominee himself has continued to make the charge of large-scale vote fraud, without any evidence to back up his claims.

Rubio, a former 2016 presidential candidate, has been an uneven critic of Trump throughout the general election, maintaining his support for his party's nominee by emphasizing his opposition to Democrat Hillary Clinton, while also rebuking Trump during some of his more controversial episodes, such as the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape from 2005

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