U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe introduces presidential candidate Marco Rubio for his campaign event in Oklahoma City on Feb. 25, 2016.
CNN reported late on Monday that a battle is being waged within Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s campaign about whether he should drop out before the Florida primary. The report claimed some supporters and advisors believe Rubio losing his home state against Donald Trump, particularly after the barrage of ads against the frontrunner, would cost him his political career.
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Alex Conant, Rubio’s communication director, said the report of an internal debate is “100% false” and angrily confronted CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room.” He told Blitzer “that is fiction” and demanded to know how the report was published without contacting the campaign. Conant also urged CNN to “stop reading that sort of fiction on air.”
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To be fair, Conant and the rest of the Rubio campaign are not particularly reachable by the media juxtaposed to other Republican candidates, including the frontrunner. Both Mr. Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz have called on Sen. Rubio to drop out of the race after he had two poor showings in the big Super Tuesday and Super Saturday contests.
CNN’s Jamie Gangel responded to the Rubio campaign’s push back, holding to her original report but stating it was from a single source.
Now, for the tie-breaker from PPD, which is based in Florida. Supporters in the state, including certain leaders in the Florida Republican Party, who claim to be neutral but are in fact completely anti-Trump, are growing increasingly concerned that it is just too late to stop Mr. Trump.
Sen. Cruz, who opened 10 offices in and around the I-4 corridor, is adding to that concern because he is intentionally trying to eliminate Sen. Rubio by drawing votes from him in central Florida, where the senator is particularly weak.
While the race appears to be tightening, Mr. Trump leads Sen. Rubio in the PPD average of Florida Republican primary polls by 16 points. The latest poll shows a closer 8-point race, but still a steep hill for the senator to climb.
