Marco Rubio Dismisses North Floridia, Panhandle as Not Accurate Assessment of State

After claiming not-so flattering Super Tuesday analysis has to be recalibrated (spun), Marco Rubio proceeded to dismiss Republican counties in Florida. Sen. Rubio conducted the interview after losing Virginia to Donald J. Trump and just before he won the Minnesota Republican caucus, giving him his first victory of the primary season.

Fox News anchor Bret Baier noted that Florida shares a media markets with 19 counties in Alabama in Georgia. In those counties, Mr. Trump beat Sen. Rubio by a whopping 50% to 16%.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t analyze it like that. These are important counties and great people who live in these counties. But you’re talking about North Florida, not heavily populated areas (as in large numbers of voters). That not an accurate assessment of Florida.”

The comments, and those that followed, were quite telling about the senator claiming the mantle of true conservatism. First, the Northern military and veteran counties are absolutely essential to any Republican who wants to carry the Sunshine State. Second, in Virginia, Mr. Trump carried the Old Dominion by driving up numbers in traditionally conservative and Republican counties, while Sen. Rubio tried to offset those margins in the liberal Democrat and D.C.-dependent counties in Northern Virginia.

Rubio said Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who actually won his own state and two others, he should think about getting out of the race. He also said he would be winning if Ohio Gov. John Kasich wasn’t in the race. Gov. Kasich is only five points behind Mr. Trump in the latest poll of the Buckeye State, while Sen. Rubio trails by roughly 20 points on the average of Florida Republican primary polls.

Consequently, he also trails by double-digits in that hypothetical one-on-one matchup with The Donald he seems to want so badly.