Alex Conant, Rubio’s communications director, admitted on CNN Friday that the best way to stop the real estate mogul in the Buckeye State would be to vote for the state’s governor, John Kasich, while Rubio is best positioned to stop Trump in the Sunshine State.
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While responding to a question about whether or not Cuba should remain diplomatically open to the United States, Trump said he would have to hammer out a “much better deal”, with the country.
“If a voter in OH is motivated by stopping Donald Trump and comes to the conclusion that John Kasich is the only one that can beat them there, then I expect that’s the decision they’ll make”, Rubio reiterated.
Trump, for his part, showed off his latest success Friday, introducing a significant new ally at a news conference at his Palm Beach resort.
Elsewhere in the country, Trump is hoping to defeat Marco Rubio in his native Florida and put him out of the race. However, Kasich was only behind Trump by 2 percentage points, while Rubio is 14 percentage points behind the brash billionaire.
A confident Trump instead adopted a magnanimous tone, calling for party unity, while Rubio focused on policy differences and turned to Republican competitor John Kasich for help, as the Republican front-runner’s rivals – and the party’s establishment – grasped for any way to slow Trump’s march toward the nomination.
Trump has a much more substantial lead heading into the Florida Republican primary with 40%, according to most recent CNN Poll of Polls averages.
The debate came as Trump’s opponents are trying to break his march to the Republican nomination just five days before crucial primaries in Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina.
For that reason, Trump has surged in the polls ahead of this crucial contest, even as two Cuban-Americans – Florida’s own Sen.
“A lot of them”, Trump shrugged.
Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump, speaks as Republican presidential candidate, Sen.
Cruz said the system was “careening toward insolvency” and it would be irresponsible not to address that. I have to say I think that’s exactly backwards.
Super PACs backing Ted Cruz are scrapping a major media buy they once eyed in Florida because Marco Rubio is likely to lose there “all by himself”, the group’s leader says.
Cruz clearly wants a one-on-one battle with Trump, who, likewise, doesn’t want delegates scattered so widely that it could increase the likelihood of a contested convention that ultimately turns against him.
The civil contest in Miami marked a sharp course correction after the last GOP debate, which devolved into a series of juvenile personal insults that left some Republicans cringing. Emails to the Cruz campaign went unanswered as of press time.
The developments came a day after a surprisingly civil Republican debate in which Mr Trump warned the party to end its civil war over his candidacy and to “be smart and unify ” . In Thursday’s debate, Rubio sounded like a candidate who sought to restore his dignity more than anything else.
For Cruz, it was by gently pointing out that voters have every right to be angry, but ought to look for a champion who actually has a plan and will stand with them. Nothing that happened Thursday night will dent his status as the Republican front-runner – particularly as the delegate math grows increasingly daunting for his rivals.
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Nelson Diaz, a former Rubio aide and the chairman of the Miami-Dade County Republican Party, praised Rubio’s debate performance.
