On Super Tuesday’s lesser cousin (the sequel), Marco Rubio failed to capture his home state of Florida when Donald Trump absolutely dominated the race. CNN projected Trump as the winner with a solid 46% of the vote with the Florida senator following far behind with 27%. This was a make-or-break moment for Rubio, and he needed to capture the entire take-all state (with 99 delegates) to justify staying in the race.
In the end, all of Rubio’s efforts to recover from a robotic meltdown and a devolution into Trump territory did not work any magic. Rubio managed some minor victories in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Minnesota, but tonight’s loss was a mortal injury.
Almost immediately after Florida was called as a projected Trump win, Rubio suspended his campaign. He seemed as upbeat as humanly possible, but from the moment he took the podium, this was a concession speech. He congratulated his foe for victory, but it remains to be seen how Rubio’s obvious recoil to the word “Trump” will fare when it comes to the inevitable nomination. Here is Rubio’s concession speech, in which he thanks his die-hard supporters while acknowledging a shouting heckler with a little sly shade: “Don’t worry, you won’t get beat up at our event.”
(Via CNN)