In the three days since the Texas senator defied polls and beat Donald Trump to win the Iowa Republican caucuses, his campaign, known for robust grassroots fundraising, has raised $3 million, Cruz’s campaign manager tweeted Thursday.
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The Republican establishment has begun to line up behind the charismatic Mr Rubio, 44, who is seen as the strongest alternative to Mr Trump and Ted Cruz, the radical candidates despised by party power brokers.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, who endorsed Bush after dropping out of the presidential race, is also campaigning with the former Florida governor.
That provides better odds for those in the crowded establishment lane.
It’s a matter of pedigree. “If Rubio wins, then I think it becomes a two-person race, which means Cruz and Rubio”. “But I’m not too anxious about that”.
For Bush, and at least two other GOP contenders, it’s also about having been a governor, and about having had to solve problems rather than advance an ideology.
Barely after midnight, Rubio was on the ground in New Hampshire, preparing for a manic one-week sprint to the state’s primary on February 9 and declaring himself capable of uniting the fractious Republican Party.
Since Iowa, where Bush placed sixth, Bush has been traveling across New Hampshire, diligently trying to compare Rubio and Sen.
But going into the second presidential contest in New Hampshire next week, he’s doing anything he can to keep his flagging campaign on the rails.
“As a speaker of the (Florida) House, he managed a staff of about 40 people”, Bush said in the interview Friday.
“I’m running for president”.
Rubio got a bounce from his Iowa performance with a WMUR/CNN poll showing rising 7 points to 18 percent. In fact, I think that law already exists.
On stage, Rubio worked through his regular recitation of President Obama’s transgressions: “unconstitutional” executive orders, “crazy” environmental regulations, “ridiculous” nuclear weapons deal with Iran, and the systematic weakening of America’s military might.
In Iowa, where evangelical Republicans are more numerous, the three governors polled a combined 6.5 percent.
That still leaves nine Republican candidates, but New Hampshire probably will eliminate several of them. Trump thundered on Twitter that the “state of Iowa” should nullify the results and order a do-over – never mind that it is the Iowa Republican Party, not the state government, that runs the caucuses.
“And she believes that partial birth abortion should be legal, which is a gruesome procedure that the vast majority of Americans find to be unconscionable”, Rubio said.
Mike Bender of Bloomberg News, asked her if this was different from campaigning in New Hampshire for her son George W.
Rubio dismissed comparisons to Obama from his critics as sour grapes from other candidates jockeying for advantage in the presidential race.
“We know who the boy in the bubble is up here who never answers your questions, who’s constantly scripted and controlled because he can’t answer your questions”, Christie said. “I’ve got my doubts that Ted Cruz can do that”.
Jeb Bush ditched his normal walk-out song Thursday night to play the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann”. “He sort of makes faces and says insulting things”, Barbara Bush said about Trump. It showed that Rubio, now at 18 percent, got a seven-point bounce following his third-place finish in Iowa. They chanted his name.
Once in the Senate, though, Rubio worked with Democrats on a plan for immigration reform, a plan he later walked away from. “Putin, the killer, Putin”, she said. But New Hampshire is unfriendly turf for him. Marco Rubio holds a campaign town hall event at the Timberland company headquarters February 4, 2016 in Stratham, N.H.
He’s begging some for votes and bear-hugging others who say they’ll consider it. This week, he whispered “please clap” after delivering a commanding speech about leadership.
“We were talking Cruz versus Rubio. Is there something in their past that would make you sense that they could actually make a tough decision?” “They aren’t used to being defeated”, Cullen says.
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In another ad, Rubio is a human weathervane: “Just another Washington politician you can’t trust”.
