National Organization for Marriage (NOM) president Brian Brown tells Breitbart News exclusively that he can’t support Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) or former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for president after they have both completely caved to the left on same-sex marriage.
“We need bold leadership from the next President to fight back against an imperial judiciary,” Brown said in an email to Breitbart News.
Senator Rubio is merely giving lip service when he says he supports traditional marriage, if he can’t even get behind a constitutional amendment that allows the People to decide the issue. Walker, Santorum, Jindal, Huckabee, and Perry have all made strong commitments at this critical time. Rubio and Bush, on the other hand, are simply caving. Period. Right now I can’t see conservatives supporting either.
This is a significant development, after both Rubio and Bush have publicly refused to back a Constitutional marriage amendment, while most of the rest of the GOP field has. Rubio, in his statement after the Supreme Court ruling this week legalizing gay marriage nationwide, called on Republicans to just follow the ruling and give in to gay marriage.
“While I disagree with this decision, we live in a republic and must abide by the law,” Rubio said. “As we look ahead, it must be a priority of the next president to nominate judges and justices committed to applying the Constitution as written and originally understood.”
Bush had essentially the same answer.
“Governor Bush does not believe amending the Constitution is the right course,” Bush’s spokeswoman Kristy Campbell told the Tampa Bay Times. “Right now, we should focus on defending religious liberty by protecting those who act on their conscience and appointing judges who understand the limits placed on them by the Constitution.”
It’s significant that Rubio and Bush have lost the support of NOM, since the traditional marriage organization supported former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney—the eventual, and then presumptive when they endorsed him, nominee—in 2012.
“Gov. Romney was an early signer of NOM’s presidential pledge which represents his commitment to the nation to take specific actions as president to preserve and protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman,” Brown said in April 2012.
President Obama has declared our nation’s marriage laws to be unconstitutional and not only has refused to defend them, his administration is actively working to repeal them in the courts. He’s come out against state constitutional amendments defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. And he has appointed leaders of the same-sex ‘marriage’ movement as national co-chairs of his reelection campaign.
That makes it notable that, at this point in the 2016 campaign, Rubio and Bush are even further left than Romney on this key social issue.