The political chatter these days is about former President Donald Trump’s legal issues and his head-to-head presidential match up with Gov Ron. DeSantis, and that the other Republican presidential candidates currently in the race are just taking up space. But while President Trump has to deal with his federal indictment, and as Gov. DeSantis continues is seen as a viable 2nd choice by many Republican voters and a growing number of solid Trump supporters, what about the rest of the field of Republican presidential candidates?
But what about Florida Senator Marco Rubio.
Yes, Sen. Rubio.
To date, these are the announced GOP presidential candidates: Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Asa Hutchinson, Sen. Tim Scott, VP Mike Pence, Chris Christie, Doug Burgum, President Trump, and Gov. DeSantis.
Outside of DeSantis and Trump, the rest of the announced field doesn’t look as if they stand a chance.
Remember, before the 2016 presidential election, Rubio was the anointed one. He was the guy.
Rubio’s 2013 self-inflicted immigration gunshot wound to his foot, where he co-sponsored the ill-fated “Gang of 8” immigration reform bill in the Senate, all but ended his chances of winning the Republican nomination in 2016.
Then-candidate Trump told The Floridian that “if it wasn’t for Rubio’s immigration bill, I wouldn’t be running.”
Remember, Trump ran on building the wall and sealing the border during the campaign, as did Sen. Ted Cruz.
Sen. Cruz eventually finished second overall behind Trump, but outside of his finish in Florida, Rubio did very well.
Rubio, who has thrown a big bucket of cold water over the speculation that he may run for president in 2024, recently defended his 2016 run and sparked curiosity about a potential run for the White House, by pointing to the fact that he finished second in South Carolina and Nevada, won three primary elections,” and almost won Virginia or Super Tuesday.”
Rubio also stated that he “finished with the 3rd most delegates behind Trump’s historic campaign & was reelected twice by 8 & 17 points.”
During the 2022 midterm election, Rubio defeated progressive Democrat Val Demings by 17 percentage points, and DeSantis beat Democrat Charlie Crist by 19 percentage points.
In addition, Rubio has now released a book, “Decade of Decadence,” which is usually a dog whistle for, ‘Yes, I am running for president.”
Yeah, yeah, I know what you all are saying. Rubio is not running, it’s all about Trump and DeSantis, but is it?
Hypothetically speaking, if Trump were to drop out, and the rest of the field of GOP candidates flounder, could a call be made in time to get Rubio to run?
Remember, after Trump won the presidency, Rubio became one of his strongest allies in the U.S. Senate.
Rubio is credited for championing Trump’s America First agenda in the Congress, and being the president’s foreign policy architect in Latin America.
Rubio was pivotal in helping Trump assert his foreign policy agenda in South America, and helping frame Trump’s strong stance against Communist Cuba, Maduro’s Venezuela, and the other banana republican nations within the Western Hemisphere.
In addition, Rubio has also come out in defense of Trump, accusing the Department of Justice of weaponizing itself for political purposes. Rubio was one of the first lawmakers to question the initial FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago.
“Yeah, I don’t have any plans to run for anything this year, because you know, timing is everything in life. And we’ve got a lot of stuff going on. I’ve really been focused on hoping we’d be in the majority these next two years. And that’s what I was focused on… The presidency is not the kind of thing you can just decide overnight to do. You’ve got to prepare yourself for that and have all the infrastructure in place. So I have no plans or intentions to do anything, run for anything over the next couple years,” said Rubio on the Hugh Hewitt radio show,
Again, Rubio says he will not run for president in 2024, but he also said he would not run for reelection to the Senate in 2016, and look what happen then?
With Rubio being an America First supporter and having used his position as a sitting U.S. Senate to push through the Trump agenda, could Rubio receive the support of the former president, if Trump decided not to run?
Chances are that Rubio would get the MAGA support before DeSantis would for his loyalty to Trump.
