Sen. Marco Rubio has suspended his campaign for President of the United States amidst a crushing defeat in his home state of Florida. Donald Trump finally dealt the killing blow to Little Marco and sent him back to his mommy. But why did Rubio’s campaign fail so miserably? Certainly The Donald and his bullying was not solely responsible for his demise. Let’s take a look at some major things that may have contributed to his downfall.
1. Rubio is still a boy
Rubio was an extremely inexperienced candidate for the presidency. Perhaps hoping to ride the coattails of Obama’s surprisingly fast rise to the White House, Rubio decided to run this time around, but that doesn’t mean he was ready.
He was only a first term Senator with a lot of growing to be done. His inexperience often showed, especially when a camera was turned on him, and he buckled under the pressure. Oh, and let’s not forget glass of water gate.
2. His robotic glitches
Everyone remembers Rubio’s not-so-great debate performance in which Chris Christie tore him a new one for repeating the same talking point about Obama so many times that it just became awkward. The Republican voters didn’t forget either.
All the Marcobot memes that popped up after that only served to make it worse for him. He made it clear that he’s just a walking collection of talking points provided by his donors with no real personality or authenticity.
3. He was overconfident
Whether it was Rubio or his team remains to be seen, but Rubio’s camp definitely thought they were inevitable. They had the entire GOP establishment betting on him to take down Trump, who they hate, and Cruz, who they hate to a slightly lesser degree.
All of this and having been touted as “The Republican Savior” probably went to their heads a little too much. Their campaign didn’t invest in knocking on doors and rallying people to vote. They just seemed to figure it would all work itself out.
4. He’s a climate change denier
While it may not seem like something that would hurt him much in a GOP primary, it surely hurt him in his home state of Florida. Florida Republicans are among the few Republican voters that actually care about climate change because it affects them so deeply. They see it with their own eyes (unless they’re Gov. Rick Scott), and Miami may in fact soon become the next Atlantis if we don’t do something.
While they may be more forgiving toward outside Republicans, they wouldn’t forgive someone who lived in Florida and experienced it.
5. They had a shoddy (if not nonexistant) ground game
Rubio’s campaign seemed to believe that they didn’t need a lot of field offices to get the job done. It may be this fact that hurt them the most. Even though data from Obama’s campaign in 2008 showed that door knocking and phone calls were hugely effective, Rubio’s campaign seemed to think they could somehow subvert science and just not do much of that.
On top of that, field offices weren’t advertized properly, and they were sorely lacking in volunteers. Without the resources to win, it’s a surprise they expected to.
There’s no question Rubio is a disappointment for the GOP, who had invested a lot in him being able to take down Trump. Now, Rubio may be actually looking at the end of his career, as he cannot again run for Senate this time around. Who knows what he will do now, but one thing is for sure. The Republican Savior has fallen hard to Earth.
Featured image by Jamelle Boule, made available by a Creative Commons license.
