Marco Rubio is taking the heat for his Betsy DeVos vote, acceptance of campaign funds

(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

last updated 8 February 2017

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) may have made his campaign donor Betsy DeVos happy on Tuesday when he voted to confirm her as secretary of education, but he ticked off a lot of his constituents, who are calling him out for previously accepting nearly $100,000 in campaign donations from DeVos and her family, the Miami New Times reports.

The Senate voted 50-50 to confirm DeVos, a tie that was broken in DeVos' favor by Vice President Mike Pence. The Center for American Progress, citing Federal Election Commission reports, says Rubio has accepted $98,300 from DeVos and her family members, more than any other senator who voted in her favor on Tuesday.

Because DeVos, a billionaire proponent of taxpayer funded charter schools and private religious schools, has no experience in public education, there were massive protests against her confirmation. Before the vote, Floridians marched to Rubio's district offices and left so many messages against DeVos his Washington, D.C., inbox was full; now that she's been confirmed, they're threatening to oust Rubio when he's up for re-election — in response to a Twitter post made today, one Florida resident said the "100k from Betsy DeVos for a vote shows you don't care about the children of Florida," another accused him of being a "sell out," and a former supporter told Rubio they regret voting for him and will "actively work to get you unseated."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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