Sen. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush no longer lead the polls in Florida, where Republicans are gravitating toward outsiders Donald Trump and Ben Carson.
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At a weekend gathering of hundreds of Florida Republican activists, he elicited a rowdier reception than Sen.
When Trump arrived at the Rosen Shingle Creek before his Friday speech, “there were women crying”.
“It’s exciting to have two serious contenders from the state of Florida”, said Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, a former state GOP chairman.
The closest Carson came to offering specific policy statements came when he declared every regulation must undergo a cost-benefit test. Otherwise, he decried government social safety nets developed under President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” and other programs, and laid out a long attack on liberal policies and philosophies that he said would destroy America. This school consists of the two putative front-runners, Donald Trump and Ben Carson, and its hallmark is the absence of any coherent approach to the set of foreign policy challenges the next president will actually inherit. “You get to see a wide array of different candidates all bringing different strengths and weaknesses”, said Peter Feaman, a Republican national committeeman from Palm Beach County. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush and he is leading them in statewide polls. “It’s very fluid. It’s very volatile”.
Not as many state legislators at the Sunshine Summit on the second day of the event as there were on Friday but a few familiar faces were seen early on Saturday including House Speaker Pro Tempore Matt Hudson, R-Naples, and state Rep. Lake Ray, R-Jacksonville…Pollster Frank Luntz spoke at the Sunshine Summit on Saturday morning, insisting that Florida would be the decisive state in the 2016 presidential election. Walker later erased any doubts about whether he’ll campaign in Florida by dropping out of the race in September.
Other states that would be impacted by repealing the health law’s Medicaid expansion include OH, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and IL, all represented by Republican senators facing tough re-election fights next year in presidential battleground states targeted by Democrats. A candidate needs 1,237 delegates to win the GOP nomination. Debate winners will attract new, deep-pocket donors and expand their support base – a key indicator of transitioning from a viable to formidable candidacy.
For candidates who survive into March, Florida could provide a valuable boost – or a lethal blow. Rubio has emerged as a front-runner, Bush has lost his footing in the top tier, and Kasich has stalled after early buzz and promise. “This campaign is going to end in Florida in my mind”.
The fact that Bush and Rubio trail in their home state represents more than a geographic curiosity. What they don’t realize is that their assassination effort is the very type of behavior that is fueling Carson’s (and Trump’s) campaign.
Most Democratic Party leaders in Hawaii, Guam and American Samoa don’t know or don’t want to say which Republican candidate would be the most formidable opponent for their own party’s presidential nominee. “I don’t think any one of them is raising themselves up to be a major threat”. “If they’ve already demonstrated the uncertainty and the lack of stability when put under that pressure then it doesn’t bode well for the general election”, Hughes said.
Austin Barbour, a fundraiser who the Post notes is now advising Bush, reportedly said: “If we’re not careful and we nominate Trump, we’re looking at a race like Barry Goldwater in 1964 or George McGovern in 1972, getting beat up across the board because of our nominee”. That continues to be my hope.
“To be successful you’ve got to appeal to people’s higher instincts, not lower instincts”. You have to inspire people to be better, not to be mad or angry. They are members of Congress and other elected officials, party leaders and members of the Democratic National Committee. Iran’s Shia leadership has battled the Sunni Islamic State, but, Huckabee said, “radical Islamists, whether Sunni or Shia, are a clear and present danger to civilization”.
Sue Snowden, a Boca Raton resident who has worked on Republican campaigns for decades, said Trump connects with voters in a way other candidates don’t.
“I have an advantage because I have thousands of jobs in Florida”, Trump said.
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“It doesn’t surprise me”, one veteran GOP strategist told Business Insider when asked about the Romney speculation.
