Marco Rubio is trailing both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz heading into the winner-take-all primaries, and many are saying his path to the nomination has dried up.
"Marco Rubio had a very, very bad night and personally I’d call for him to drop out of the race . . . I think it’s probably time," Trump said on Saturday after winning Kentucky and Louisiana,
Real Clear Politics reported.
"I want Ted one-on-one," he added.
Gathered below are seven indicators that Rubio's time is up.
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1. He's only won one state — Rubio finally won a state on Super Tuesday, raking in 17 delegates from Minnesota, just four more than second-place finisher Cruz, and nine more than third-place finisher Trump,
The New York Times reported. That win helped him beat the rap that he couldn't win a state, but fell short of putting him on a clear path to the nomination.
2. His Puerto Rico win reveals shortcomings — On March 6, Rubio won all 23 delegates in Puerto Rico with a landslide victory. Rubio was the only candidate to visit the island nation, however, and he delivered his speech there in Spanish.
As the New Republic commented, "Rubio’s success there merely confirms that his appeal isn’t to the median GOP base voter."
3. He has half the delegates of his nearest competitor — Rubio has just 151 delegates to Cruz's 300 and, even worse, he trails far behind Trump's 384 delegate count.
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4. He's not polling well in upcoming states — In Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Washington, D.C., Wyoming, North Carolina, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and even his home state of Florida, Rubio
trails Trump in the polls. In many states, he falls behind both Trump and Cruz.
5. Even if he wins Florida, he won't pull ahead — If Rubio wins his home state of Florida and scoops up all 99 delegates in its winner-take-all primary on March 15, he will not pull ahead of Trump in the delegate count. If Rubio wins Florida, he, Cruz, and Kasich may manage to keep Trump from winning the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the GOP nomination, but the best he could hope for at that point is a brokered convention.
6. His resume doesn't fit the 2016 mood — "On paper, Marco Rubio looks like a consensus candidate, the perfect sort of Republican to put up against Hillary Clinton. On the trail, he is eloquent and has had a charismatic run over the past few weeks. The good endorsements have all gone his way,"
The Federalist wrote on Monday. "But it seems rather obvious: He is not the candidate suited for the moment." Many pundits have called 2016 the Year of the Outsider, and Rubio is anything but.
7. His immigration stance remains a fatal flaw — Rubio has been savaged by his opponents and critics time and time again for joining the so-called Gang of Eight in 2013, a bi-partisan Senate group that drafted a bill to grant a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants along with securing the border. In the 2016 election cycle, Trump has made immigration his chief issue and drawn a stark contrast with Rubio.
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