MIAMI – Marco Rubio jumped on to a stage in front of a few thousand wildly cheering supporters at an open-air equestrian center Tuesday night, pumped his right fist twice, and bragged that he has been rising in the polls since he started aggressively going after Donald Trump.
“We are seeing in state after state his numbers going down. We are seeing in state after state, our numbers going up,” Rubio said.
The boast came about as close to ignoring reality as a politician can get. Eleven states held primary elections or caucuses Tuesday night, and Rubio lost all but one. He gained his first victory of the entire primary process so far in the Minnesota caucuses, a result announced an hour before midnight.
Now, with one-third of the total delegates that determine the GOP’s nominee awarded, the 44-year-old U.S. senator from Florida trails Trump and fellow Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in the delegate race. But far more pressing for Rubio is his momentum problem. He has almost none, and worse, Tuesday marked the third time in the primaries that he has appeared to have some wind in his sails, only to run aground when the votes are cast.
Cruz, a 45-year-old first-term senator, won the surprise contest of the night, beating Trump 34 percent to 28 percent in Oklahoma, with Rubio finishing at 26 percent. In addition to winning his home state of Texas, Cruz emerged as the winner of the ongoing sweepstakes to be the alternative to Trump.
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