Republican candidate Marco Rubio netted a strong third place in the Iowa caucuses. Can he capitalise on the momentum to emerge as the party's choice for president? Marco Rubio has a target on his back. The Republican senator from Florida finished only third in the Iowa caucuses, but his rivals in the crowded field of US presidential candidates now see him as their chief threat and have stepped up their attacks accordingly ahead of Tuesday's vote in New Hampshire.
Young, Latino and optimistic in tone, Rubio is seen as palatable to the disparate wings of the conservative Republican Party. "He may do very well here next week and if he does he is going to be in a really good position to be one of the key people that are going in the rest of the schedule," said Dean Spiliotes, a political science professor at Southern New Hampshire University.
The Republican field has splintered between Donald Trump and everyone else jockeying for position for who might rise to the top should the billionaire businessman and political outsider falter. With his first-place finish in Iowa, Senator Ted Cruz seems to have emerged as the favoured choice among the party's more conservative wing, but many within the party believe he is too conservative for a general election. Rubio's unexpectedly strong finish in Iowa means that he's poised to beat out the rest of the more traditional establishment candidates and square off against Trump or Cruz to be the party standard-bearer.
But first he will have to get through New Hampshire. The small north-eastern state holds the second contest in the state-by-state nominating process and is seen as a proving ground for those seeking to rise to the nation's highest office. The Iowa result "gave me hope that there was a chance" for Rubio to rise to the top, Rubio supporter and retired teacher Sandy Stowe, 68, said at a rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Rubio, who has portrayed himself as the best Republican to take on Democrats in November used the rally to paint a contrast between himself and President Barack Obama.
Too many young people think the American dream is dead, "and you cannot blame them for that," said Rubio, who drew a few hundred people to the rally and took selfies with members of the crowd afterward. Rubio received a larger-than-expected share of the vote in Iowa and now faces huge expectations for a strong finish in New Hampshire. "He so completely devastated the establishment candidates in Iowa that losing to any of them in New Hampshire will be seen as a step back," writes conservative commentator Leon Wolf. Those candidates won't let Rubio off the hook and have spent considerable time in recent months campaigning in New Hampshire, where voters are less conservative than in Iowa and competition among mainstream candidates is fiercer.
"[New Jersey Governor] Chris Christie and [Ohio Governor] John Kasich won't leave. They are here all the time," Spiliotes said. Taking aim at Rubio, Christie described the boyish 44-year-old as an overly scripted "boy in a bubble," while former Florida governor Jeb Bush declared Rubio wasn't "going to be coronated" after his Iowa finish. But as his chief challengers take aim, voters are seeing Rubio as a fresh face for the party that could prove a contrast in November elections against the likely nominee of the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton. Entrance polls of Iowa voters gave Rubio a 20 percentage point lead over other candidates for his ability to win in November and was seen as the best choice to deal with the economy.
New Hampshire voter Paul Scoff, 56, an oil and gas company executive, made up his mind in recent weeks after first considering other candidates. "Marco hits almost all the points and positions that I stand for," he told dpa at the Rubio rally. "I think he can do both unite the party and unite the country." Polls conducted before voting began show Trump with a large lead in New Hampshire and a tight contest among a handful of more traditional candidates, with Bush, Kasich and Rubio all making strong showings. The question now is after stomping those rivals in Iowa, whether Rubio can draw enough support to quickly emerge as the favoured candidate.
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