Republican Presidential candidate Marco Rubio greets supporters at Yabba Island Grill in Naples on Friday, March 11, 2016.(Photo: Amanda Inscore/The News-Press)
NAPLES, Fla. — Republican candidate Marco Rubio may be down in the polls, but the Miami native worked the Naples crowd on Friday like he had already won Tuesday's make-or-break winner-take-all Florida presidential primary.
"We've got this," the Florida senator told supporters who clamored for a hug or a photograph outside a restaurant.
To one supporter, who opposes the GOP front-runner, Donald Trump, Rubio said: "We won't let him take the White House."
After a strong showing in Thursday's Republican debate in Miami, Rubio is positioning himself as the anti-Trump vote in the Florida primary. Rubio had this message for the Florida supporters of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
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"I don't blame people in Ohio if they conclude that, while they like me, the only way to stop Trump there is to vote for Kasich," Rubio said. "I have made the argument here in Florida that If you're a Ted Cruz supporter or a John Kasich supporter, voting for them in Florida means you're voting for Donald Trump because I am the only one who can beat him in Florida."
He talked directly about the high stakes of Florida's outcome. "I've always felt that the winner of the Florida primary is probably going to be the nominee," he said.
But he stopped short of saying he would drop out if he lost the primary in his home state. "We haven't even thought about that," he said. "We're just focused on winning Florida."
In the chaos of a heated campaign, however, Rubio admited that he regrets the tone of his political attacks on Trump, although he said they were in response to Trump's own negativity.
Rubio spent about 15 minutes greeting people eating late lunches at the Yabba Island Grill and a crowd of about 200 supporters who crowded into Sugden Plaza with Rubio bumper stickers, signs and copies of Rubio's book
100 Innovative Ideas for Florida in downtown Naples on Friday afternoon. The crowd was made up largely of snowbirds, some from as far away as Iowa and Massachusetts, although a few locals ducked out from work to see their home state political celebrity.
"Marco gave me a hug," squealed Lindy Connor, a Massachusetts resident who is wintering in Sarasota. "I told him I was from Massachusetts and I voted for him and he said wow and then I guess that he just had to give me a hug. I told him he has people who love him, even up in liberal land."
Not every one in the crowd was a supporter, however. John Moore of Naples came out with a handmade sign held high urging Rubio to drop out of the race to give Cruz Florida's 99 delegates.
"I voted to send Rubio to the Senate," Moore said. "He was the Tea Party's guy then and I gave him my vote. But now, he needs to reinforce his dedication to the cause and prove to me that he is really a patriot and step down in time to give Cruz our delegates.
“That is what a true conservative would do. He wouldn't let his ambition hurt the cause. He wouldn't let his political ambition serve up Florida, and most likely the United States, on a silver platter to Donald Trump."
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