In an interview with WDBO News Talk Radio 96.5 FM, Marco Rubio stated that he will not drop out of the presidential race, even if he doesn’t win the Florida primary Tuesday.
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Trump’s closest competition has come from Texas Sen.
The latest Quinnipiac University Poll puts Clinton in the lead with Florida voters by 60 percent to Sanders’ 34 percent.
Nearly every state that has voted so far has awarded delegates proportionally, so that even the losers could get delegates.
When Marco Rubio declared his candidacy for president in April, he was one of three Republican “establishment favorites” along with former Florida governor Jeb Bush and OH governor John Kasich.
On Tuesday, Clinton downplayed the Republican’s appeal to voters, noting that what he has done is win a “minority of those who choose to vote in Republican primaries and caucuses”.
Kasich argued that teaming with Trump is unnecessary as he will ultimately emerge as the Republican presidential standard-bearer.
“He will fix everything that is wrong with the economy and immigration”, said Alex Perri, a 59-year-old retired firefighter from Margate, Florida, who was campaigning for Trump in the parking lot of an Oakland Park voting place.
While Trump could take all five states Tuesday, that still would not assure he goes into the Republican convention this summer with the needed majority of delegates.
A Trump sweep could have given him an insurmountable lead in the delegate count, b ut the contests brought little clarity.
The senator attempted to position himself as the best establishment candidate to defeat Trump, but his efforts to engage in personal attacks with the GOP frontrunner might have backfired.
Trump picked up all 99 delegates in Florida and now has 568.
Entering Tuesday, Clinton had 768 pledged delegates compared to 554 for Sanders, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. A Trump win would likely deliver a knockout blow to the Kasich campaign. Trump said he didn’t want to “ruin somebody’s life, but do we prosecute somebody like that?”
While the New Yorker had amassed the most delegates going into Tuesday, he has won fewer than 50%. It takes 1,237 to win the GOP nomination.
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If Trump were to win Florida but lose OH, the status quo would prevail, and the race would continue on an uncertain path. Trump would have slightly less than 50 percent of the delegates, but he could jump above the threshold by winning the rest of the winner-take-all states.
