In New Hampshire, the night after the Iowa caucuses, it was hard not to feel the “Marco-mentum”.
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As the results of the Iowa Caucuses came in, the crowded Republican presidential race appeared to be narrowing down to a three-cornered contest with Rubio coming a close third behind Texas Senator Ted Cruz and controversial presidential front-runner Donald Trump.
“We felt that momentum in the last few days”, Rubio said, adding that he hopes the Monday night outcome will “translate” in New Hampshire, which holds its primary a week from Tuesday.
At a campaign event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire Thursday, Rubio is telling would-be Paul voters that he shares the Kentucky senator’s views on how to prosecute drug crimes and address problems in the criminal justice system. “We can not win if we are divided against each other”. Though he is young, he also has the experience, having served four terms in the Florida legislature, including as speaker of the House, majority leader, and majority whip.
Chris Christie is laughing off suggestions that John Kasich is running a positive campaign and saying the OH governor’s sunny-side-of-the-street routine amounts to a “face lift”.
“That is very important to the Republican Party establishment, (because) they’re looking for someone to rally behind”. Rubio says he’d seek his endorsement, despite Paul’s call for limited USA military engagement overseas. In one Republican debate, Trump failed to demonstrate he understood what the nuclear triad even was, much less what he would do with it. Rubio, on the other hand, explained exactly what it was to the audience watching at home, and gave a very clear vision for how he would use it to protect and defend America.
While Republican voters in Iowa skew more toward the evangelical conservative, the New Hampshire Republican primary often draws independents and more fiscally conservative voters.
The Rubio campaign has declared it a “three-man race” between Rubio, Cruz and Trump. By contrast, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush released a full-page newspaper ad attacking Trump and was airing a two-minute campaign ad in New Hampshire featuring clips of Trump’s on-air insults.
“Everybody is getting excited about him”.
Rubio insisted he remains the best opportunity for Republicans to snatch back the White House, and that embracing Trump’s divisiveness or Cruz’s extremes will lead to four more years of a Democrat at the helm.
Bush said during a campaign stop in New Hampshire that Cruz and Rubio did not possess the needed life experience to be the president and also questioned if either of the two had sacrificed their own ambition for the good of the public.
However, Hubbard has reached one conclusion: “It’s too late for Jeb Bush, and I think that’s kind of sad”.
By Tuesday, a sleep-deprived Rubio kicked off the day in New Hampshire doing 15 television and radio interviews to local stations.
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Cullen, who last week endorsed Kasich, said that despite Rubio’s uplifting oratory and rags-to-political-riches personal story, his is not the most optimistic message. Christie mocked the tightly controlled Rubio campaign appearances.
