A Marco Rubio pollster said there are a number of candidates in the crowded Republican presidential field who could put together the right mix to win the GOP nomination in 2016 – although his candidate is the most “transformational” of the bunch, and that’s what Republicans need right now.
In a Tuesday breakfast with reporters sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor, Whit Ayres said that the Republican Party needs somebody who can reach out in a meaningful way to Hispanic voters, allowing them to get the kind of support George W. Bush had in 2004.
“Republicans can do very well among Hispanics,” said Ayres, president of North Star Opinion Research and author of the recently released book “2016 and Beyond: How Republicans Can Elect a President in the New America.” “They don’t have to win a majority, but they sure gotta do in the 40s rather than in the 20s like Mitt Romney.”
He added: “We need to nominate a candidate that sends a message that we want Hispanic-Americans in the center-right coalition – that we want you as part of our team, because the Republican values of equal opportunity for all and greater economic growth and limited government work for all people regardless of race, creed or color.”
A good choice, he noted, would be Rubio, the West Miami Republican expected to announce his candidacy within two weeks.
Although the first-term senator is in the top tier among the Beltway political class, he’s still in the single digits in polls of likely Republican primary voters. That means very little so early in the race. Then again, there are several Republicans with strong resumes who also are credible candidates.
Rubio, Ayres said, has the ability to be the one to break out of the pack.
“He’s substantive, he’s talented, and I am very confident that once the voters get the chance to see the kind of candidate he is – and the kind of vision he paints for the country – that they will place him in the top tier as well,” Ayres said.
Rubio has gifts in the political world that Ayres – who received a graduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – once saw in a Tar Heel legend.
“I loved watching Michael Jordan play basketball because he could just do things with a basketball that were not teachable – and were just instinctively amazing,” Ayres said. “Marco Rubio is the Michael Jordan of American politics. And anyone underestimates his ability at their peril.”