The challenger's challenge

Marco Rubio and his conservative ideas have shaken up the Florida GOP. Now he's in a neck-and-neck race for a U.S. Senate seat and a chance to shake up Washington | Edward Lee Pitts

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla.—At a July 15 town hall meeting at Sonny's Bar-B-Q in Panama City Beach, Fla., Sizzlin' Sweet Sauce on Smokey Ribs is just one of the hot items confronting Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Marco Rubio.

Rubio began his presentation by promising the packed lunchtime crowd he wanted to listen more than talk. Now he is getting an earful. "Sir, I'm a 30-year veteran of the U.S. government," says former Army soldier and federal marshal employee Joseph Wilds, 51, as he walks toward Rubio. "I've earned the right to speak out."

Wilds, wearing flip-flops and a red, white, and blue Harley-Davidson T-shirt, backs up this right by mentioning his Vietnam veteran father and a World War II veteran grandfather. "How are you, an individual, going to go up there and make changes?"

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August 14, 2010, Vol. 25, No. 16

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