Sen. Marco Rubio delivered a speech in Florida just minutes before the polls closed in Mississippi and Michigan, where he was getting crushed by Donald Trump.
Rather than focusing on the devastating election results, Rubio bet everything on his home state.
“I believe with all my heart that the winner of the Florida primary next Tuesday will be the nominee of the Republican primary,” he said.
But the only good news he had to share with his supporters in Ponte Vedra, Florida was his win in Puerto Rico. Rubio said:
We will win and I know we will win because last Saturday night, I traveled to the island of Puerto Rico, a place that does not vote for Republicans often. And I did not go there as a moderate, nor did I go there as a liberal, I went there as a conservative … and on Sunday, over 70 percent of people on the island voted for me and I won that primary!
Rubio took the stage with his sleeves rolled up and delivered another urgent plea to voters to help him win a dynamic victory next Tuesday.
He warned voters against nominating Donald Trump, saying that 60 percent of the Republican party was rejecting him, and a third of the party refused to ever vote for him. He continued to argue that he was the best candidate to beat Hillary Clinton in November and to keep Donald Trump from the nomination.
“It’s not enough to stand up here and say we’re going to make America Great Again,” he said. “You deserve to know how! You deserve to know how you’re going to do that! Because if you don’t know how, then how do you hold anyone accountable? How do you really know what you’re getting?”
Rubio also alluded to Ted Cruz as a conservative that couldn’t win a general election. “We cannot afford to nominate someone in this party that is not conservative and we cannot afford to nominate someone that is not a conservative that can win,” he said. “I know that I can win. The Democrats know that I will win.”
Rubio recalled his long-shot Senate race against the more liberal Charlie Crist. He reminded voters that it was time for voters to support him again because he needed Florida to continue his 2016 campaign.
“Tonight, this weather, this is why people live in Florida right here,” he said. “So here we are. It always comes down to Florida, doesn’t it? And it will again this year, not once but twice.”