Why Marco Rubio will be in Florida on Super Tuesday
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is campaigning in Minneapolis, Minnesota, ahead of the state's Super Tuesday caucuses. His campaign believes Minnesota is a state where he can do well, citing recent polling and the fact that the caucus format and voter turnout in metropolitan areas around the Twin Cities works in his favor. Minnesota has a more moderate electorate, relative to the majority of states voting today in the South, and Rubio has made multiple stops here over the last two weeks.
Tuesday night, he'll return home to Miami for a rally there, as votes are tallied across the country. Without a clear state where Rubio is expected to win, a homecoming rally billed by the campaign as a "Florida-kickoff" already looks ahead to Mar. 15, when Florida and Ohio begin the "winner-take-all" phase of this primary season and where Rubio has guaranteed he will win.
Rubio changed his campaign strategy in Houston last week, changing the tenor of his attacks against Donald Trump by calling him a "con artist," mocking him by suggesting he has "small hands," could "wet his pants," and saying he had a "spray tan." He also pointed to lawsuits filed against Trump University and Trump's lack of specific policy proposals as disqualifiers for the nomination and presidency.
Before hopping a plane to Miami, Rubio told reporters that they "certainly weren't expecting to win Super Tuesday -- but I think we're gonna do very well."
"We're gonna have a lot of delegates after tonight and you're gonna see very clearly after tonight that Donald Trump has," Rubio said. He promised that he would continue in the primary election, saying "no one is going to beg to me get out of this race so we could coalesce around Donald Trump."
The campaign has targeted younger voters in urban centers and suburbs in Texas, Oklahoma, Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Minnesota, Georgia and Alabama, holding 15 events over the last four days.
Rubio's argument to voters in these Super Tuesday states has been that the time for games is over, and Trump needs to be stopped before he hijacks the conservative movement, loses to general election to Hillary Clinton and destroys the Republican party. Rubio is touting himself as the only viable alternative to Trump who can unite the party and grow support ahead of the general.