Carlos Beruff, who is challenging Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in the Republican primary and has portrayed himself as the race’s "Washington outsider," employs a Washington-based political consultant named Curt Anderson and is using a campaign talking point that another client of Anderson’s has also used.
Beruff’s campaign has poured money into a statewide ad buy that calls on the United States to move away from labels that "hyphenate" Americans’ ethnicities. He has echoed this sentiment on the campaign trail.
"We have been accustomed to saying that we can hyphenate Americans. We’re African-American, Cuban-American, Mexican-American, and I don’t advocate for that," Beruff told a crowd in Fort Myers, Fla., on Friday. "I advocate to say you’re American first, and wherever you came from is second."
I don’t believe in hyphenated Americans, we are all simply Americans. #sayfie pic.twitter.com/knTNA9jm3Y
— Carlos Beruff (@carlosberuff) June 17, 2016
The talking point replicates an oft-repeated phrase from former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s 2016 GOP presidential bid. Anderson served as Jindal’s chief strategist at the time the former Louisiana governor first used the "hyphenated Americans" talking point.
"I am done with all this talk about hyphenated Americans," Jindal said last summer when he announced his candidacy. "We are not Indian-Americans, African-Americans, Irish-Americans, rich Americans, or poor Americans. We are all Americans."
Anderson, a prominent Republican strategist whose firm OnMessage helped elect Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) and Sen. Cory Gardner (R., Colo.) in 2014, assists Beruff with polling, media, and strategy.
Beruff hailed Anderson during a campaign event earlier this month as his "strategist in Washington who lives this business."
Chris Hartline, communications director for Beruff’s Senate campaign, pointed to a 2007 article published in the Bradenton Herald in which Beruff, who was receiving an award from then-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, made a similar point to the one later taken up by Jindal.
"We’re Americans first and Cuban by ancestry," Beruff said in the interview roughly nine years ago. "We love our heritage but we also love this country."
Hartline pushed back against the claim that Beruff’s talking point was generated by a consultant, describing it as "misinformation."
"Carlos has said his entire life that while he’s proud of his Cuban heritage, he’s American first," Hartline said. "Americans are tired of the culture of Washington that looks to divide, instead of unite Americans."
Beruff will face off against Rubio in the Republican Senate primary on Aug. 30. The former Republican presidential candidate is leading Beruff by more than 60 points by a margin of 71 percent to 7 percent, according to a poll from the Associated Industries of Florida released last month.