Marco Rubio‘s still barrelling away on the campaign trail and refuses to close his eyes until Tuesday’s big primaries, which include his winner-take-all home state of Florida. Most folks consider him completely out of the game at this point, but Rubio quietly gathered some delegates this weekend by winning the D.C. Republican convention. This particular caucus is notable because not a single GOP candidate bothered to seriously campaign in the District of Columbia. Rubio’s success (after claiming only Minnesota and Puerto Rico) seems to bolster him as the establishment candidate of choice. Yet if this presidential race provides a lesson, it’s that a textbook Republican does not score well at this point in history. Still, Rubio’s communications manager, Alex Conant, appeared optimistic with this victory.
Marco won a lot of delegates tonight. #Marcomentum
— Alex Conant (@AlexConant) March 13, 2016
DC's changed a lot in last decade. It's a minority-majority city that's embracing the future. And today voted for it https://t.co/IlqSh9SzsM
— Alex Conant (@AlexConant) March 13, 2016
There are several bits of Rubio news to unpack, but we’ll touch on a few here. First, Rubio encountered the weirdest protester at a Florida rally. Perhaps this guy is more of a heckler, but regardless, this is a strange moment. The man interrupted a rally by standing up and accusing Rubio of stealing his girlfriend. The unidentified man yelled, “He’s a little bit better looking than me, and that’s true, but he’s trying to steal my girlfriend. That’s the truth. He’s probably going to steal yours, too!” The man added that his lady doesn’t love him much after meeting Rubio in New Hampshire.
– Protestor interrupts @marcorubio – says that the senator stole his girlfriend in New Hampshire -> pic.twitter.com/FUNboO40ag
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) March 13, 2016
Someone on Twitter has an idea of who this lady might be.
https://twitter.com/AmericaHipple/status/709113014247694337
This heckler isn’t a fan, but Rubio certainly isn’t inspiring fiery protests in manner of Donald Trump. Speaking of which, Rubio spent much of the weekend bemoaning his party association with the leading GOP candidate. He looked to be in visible pain when a reporter asked if he’d still support Trump as the nominee. Despite plentiful robot jokes, people are calling this a very human moment: “I don’t know… getting harder every day.”
The most human moment of this campaign I've seen is Rubio this a.m. on whether he'd support Trump as the nominee pic.twitter.com/YzziiLoh0U
— Hunter Schwarz (@hunterschwarz) March 13, 2016
Will this heart-on-the-sleeve approach help in Florida where Rubio currently trails Trump by 18 points? We’ll find out on Tuesday, but he’s adopted an interesting strategy of encouraging people to vote for John Kasich in Ohio.
In addition to that brief clip, here’s Rubio’s full press meeting where he appears extremely emotional. Sure, he’s upset at being considered a losing candidate, but Rubio’s more disturbed by the chaos inspired by Trump. This quote and the entire video paints one upset candidate.
“This is a frightening, grotesque, and disturbing development in American politics. We are being ripped apart at the seams now. I’m sad for this country. This is supposed to be the example to the world of how a republic functions and instead people are watching third-world images last night coming out of Chicago.”
(Via CNN and Real Clear Politics)