GOP Race Still Wide Open As Candidates Come To Florida

November 14, 2015

As the candidates in a crowded Republican presidential field began making their pitches to party activists Friday at the Florida GOP’s “Sunshine Summit,” it was as much a reminder of what hasn’t happened in the state’s primary campaign as what has.

Even with two prominent Florida politicians in the race — former Gov. Jeb Bush and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio — the campaign appears to be wide open. Real-estate tycoon Donald Trump and neurosurgeon Ben Carson have polled well in the state, even ahead of Bush and Rubio, four months before voters choose which candidate will get all of Florida’s 99 delegates to the Republican National Convention.

“I think most everybody, even the candidates, thought that this was going to be kind of a contest between Rubio and Bush,” former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a fellow candidate, told reporters Friday after making his pitch. “And Florida being a winner-take-all state probably meant that most of the candidates wouldn’t feel even a need to invest a lot and campaign in Florida … if they couldn’t poll well and couldn’t beat the native sons. But I don’t know that that’s the case anymore.”

Given that dynamic and a party rule that makes it tedious to qualify for the ballot without showing up to the event, 14 of the 15 major Republican candidates agreed to appear at the summit Friday and Saturday at the Rosen Shingle Creek resort. Only former New York Gov. George Pataki passed up a chance to address hundreds of party activists and officials in Orlando.

The party is hoping to capitalize on the fact that the winner of the state’s March 15 vote will get a healthy boost toward the 1,236 delegates needed to clinch the GOP presidential nomination.

The famously on-message Rubio mixed some state-specific notes into his speech to the Republicans at the event.

Rubio stressed that his own tale of being the child of immigrants who came to America to build a better life was not just his story, but the nation’s.

“It’s especially the story of Florida, a state where people have come from all over the place in search of a better life,” Rubio said. “Some came here fleeing socialism in Venezuela, some fleeing socialism in New York.”

The Florida Gators fan also couldn’t help a “Go Gators” when talking about the campaign in the critical early state of South Carolina — Florida faces the Gamecocks this weekend — and joked that how well he does in the “SEC primary,” a collection of Southern states voting March 1, might be tied to how the Gators do in a surprisingly good season.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas — who like Rubio is of Cuban descent — noted that Florida and his home state are both growing states that draw immigrants and “share a similar dislike for snow.”

“There is a reason people are fleeing high-tax, high-regulation states all over the country and coming to states like Florida and Texas, because jobs and opportunity and growth and the future (are) in states like Florida and Texas,” Cruz said. “Florida’s primary is a critical time and Florida can play a decisive role in ensuring that the next Republican nominee for president is a strong conservative.”

In a possible sign of the upheaval in the race, Cruz got one of the warmer welcomes of the first day. His speech ended to a standing ovation, as the candidate leapt off the front of the stage and began shaking hands in the crowd.

Cruz also unveiled his Florida campaign’s leadership, including state Chairman Neil Combee, a state lawmaker from Polk County, and stopped at an Orlando church to unveil his “Stop Illegal Immigration” policy.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, lagging far behind the rest of the field in the polls, simply nodded in Bush and Rubio’s direction.

“You have two wonderful candidates from Florida running for the presidency of the United States; you should be proud,” he said.

And despite the current state of the race, Bush and Rubio could still prove to be formidable opponents here. Republican Party of Florida Chairman Blaise Ingoglia, who is neutral in the presidential race, cautioned against reading too much into where candidates stand right now. Ingoglia, a Spring Hill Republican who also serves in the state House, said things would tighten in the weeks ahead.

“As we get closer to the date, people are going to start paying more attention, (a), and then, (b), they’re going to start solidifying their decisions,” he said.

Even Huckabee noted that things could change.

“Historically, at this stage of the race, what it looks like right now is nowhere near what it will look like by the time we get to Feb. 1,” he said.

by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News