For months, Marco Rubio toiled as the second-class Miami Republican running for president, dismissed by most of the ruling order in favor of his political elder, Jeb Bush, when it came to two crucial campaign yardsticks: money and endorsements.
No more.
Bush’s exit from the race Saturday after a lackluster fourth-place result in the South Carolina primary freed the former Florida governor’s supporters to select a new candidate. And that began a steady shift to Rubio.
The first local politicians to declare their new allegiance: Miami’s current and former Cuban-American Republican members of Congress, who plan to endorse the Florida senator en masse Monday after having initially backed their decades-old friend Bush.
Reps. Carlos Curbelo, Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and former Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, all intend to back Rubio in a Coral Gables news conference that will signal a united front in Rubio’s favor. It will also send a message to others caught in the Bush-Rubio rivalry to let go of any bad blood from the past months sooner rather than later.
“We feel real good about Florida, especially now that the race has narrowed,” Rubio said Sunday on ABC News’ This Week. “Obviously, I have a lot of admiration and respect for Gov. Bush. We obviously shared a lot of supporters. Now that he’s suspended his campaign, I think that really boosts us — not just in Florida but in Ohio and in other key places around the country.”
On Sunday, one U.S. senator who had sided with Bush, Dean Heller of Nevada, stumped for Rubio — two days before Nevada’s GOP caucuses. A Nevada Republican congressman who had remained neutral joined them. (So did Donnie Wahlberg, the actor and founding member of the boy band New Kids on the Block, because, it seemed, he figured Rubio had the right stuff.)
And it’s not just endorsements (which the Rubio campaign, truth be told, had scoffed at early on when Bush boasted of them). Some of the Florida people who ensure a campaign’s survival — financiers — were also making the jump, according to Brian Ballard, a Tallahassee lobbyist who publicly broke with Bush’s candidacy in favor of Rubio’s after the pro-Bush super PAC Right to Rise went after the senator.
“A lot of people were prepared to come to Marco — they kind of saw the writing on the wall — but were waiting for Jeb to get out,” Ballard said. “There’s really no time for people to study their navels if they want to get involved.”
There’s really no time for people to study their navels if they want to get involved.
Brian Ballard, Marco Rubio fundraiser
From the dozens of calls he said he made and fielded Sunday, Ballard said he didn’t hear hard feelings — a point Rubio fans have been making for days to keep the doors open to new checkbooks.
“The best thing Jeb’s campaign did was raise money and build resources,” Ballard said. “They’re welcomed by the Marco campaign with open arms.”
Bush didn’t back anyone Saturday, and his aides wouldn’t say if or when he would. The Huffington Post reported Sunday that former Republican nominee Mitt Romney was set to endorse Rubio, but the senator denied that was true, at least for now.
Backers like Ros-Lehtinen, Curbelo and the Diaz-Balarts could serve as prominent Rubio campaign surrogates over the coming weeks, especially on Spanish-language radio and television. All four politicians had been careful not to bash Rubio during the campaign, saying they thought Bush was more experienced but that Rubio would make a good nominee, too.
Curbelo had hinted at the coming endorsement in a tweet after Bush’s concession Saturday night: “It’s time for all Republicans to unite behind a candidate who respects the American people; respects the Constitution & can WIN,” he wrote.