Rubio Camp to Establishment Rivals: It’s Over
Dan Hirschhorn and Zeke J Miller / Des Moines,Time 2 hours 53 minutes ago
Marco Rubio's campaign quickly moved to capitalize on his strong finish in the Iowa caucuses
Monday night, wasting no time in sending a message to his
establishment-friendly rivals that the Florida Senator is the only
candidate who can stop Ted Cruz or Donald Trump.
“It’s now a three-person race," Rubio
campaign spokesman Alex Conant told TIME. "One of these three people
will be the nominee. If other campaigns don’t want to accept it, that’s
fine, but it’s a three person race."
Rubio's third-place finish with 99% of
precincts reporting was in line with expectations the campaign had set
in terms of pole position. But in finishing just 1 point behind Trump
and not far behind first-place Cruz, Rubio emerged as a winner in Iowa,
where the caucuses
have long been almost as much about beating expectations as they have
about winning outright. And it was easy to interpret the Conant's
comment as a missile directed toward Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and John
Kasich—other establishment-favored candidates who will find themselves
under growing pressure to exit the race if they don't perform well in
the New Hampshire primary next week.
Addressing enthusiastic supporters in Des Moines, Rubio gave what amounted to a victory speech.
"So this is the moment they said would
never happen," Rubio said. "The people of this state have sent a clear
message. After seven years of Barack Obama, we aren’t waiting any
longer."
Rubio used the speech, broadcast live
nationwide, to make a clear argument that he is the most electable
Republican. “When I am our nominee, we will unite our party, we will
grow our party, and we will defeat Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders,”
he said.
Aides predicted a sharp uptick in fundraising and support to Rubio, pointing to Monday evening’s news that South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott will officially endorse him Tuesday, as well as conversations with donors to other campaigns who they said are preparing to jump to the Florida senator’s effort.
Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, a Rubio
endorser, told TIME “there may have already been some phone calls” from
him to colleagues in Congress encouraging them to back Rubio. And
Gardner called on the establishment candidates in the GOP field to clear
out, saying Rubio’s third-place finish “certainly presents a great
opportunity to consolidate.”
As returns trickled in throughout the night, Rubio campaign officials expressed glee at his numbers.
"Damn good night for @TeamMarco!"
Rubio campaign manager Terry Sullivan said on Twitter. "And it looks
like its gonna keep getting better based on the precincts still to
come."
"We blew past all our vote goals an hour
ago," top strategist Todd Harris said on Twitter. "Feeling very good. We
are still climbing. #teammarco #rubiowa."
end quote from:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/rubio-camp-establishment-rivals-over-042607356.html
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