Ted Cruz is not widely expected to win next week's Florida primary, but his super PAC is attacking Marco Rubio in his home state with a seven-figure ad buy and surrogates are stumping in the state in hopes of pulling enough voters away from him to ensure Donald Trump wins the state and Rubio is forced out of the race.
"Cruz thinks he can do well against Trump in a head-to-head race, and he needs to kill Rubio to do it," Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said, reports
Politico, after Monmouth released a survey showing Trump leading Rubio by a 38-30 percent count among Florida Republicans.
The winner will claim all 99 of Florida's GOP delegates, and the primary could be a do-or-die deal for Rubio's weakening campaign. Cruz's move could be a way to force his fellow senator into spending more money and time winning the state and free up Cruz to compete in eight other states holding primaries or caucuses between Tuesday and Saturday.
Saul Anuzis, a former Michigan GOP chairman who has been advising the Cruz campaign on delegate strategy, told Politico that Rubio "doesn't really have a path to victory" and needs to decide about dropping out.
"We're setting up shop, we've got our people there, we're getting people to go down there, I think we're prepared to play in Florida," said Anuzis. "If Rubio drops out, then we have a shot. Then it's very real."
Rubio though, likely won't drop out before the Florida primary, and is ahead by five to one among early voters, according to surveys. However, the number surveyed was small and Rubio may have a smaller lead.
Florida state Rep Neil Combee, who chairs the Cruz campaign in Florida, noted that Cruz's results in this past Saturday's contests show his strength while exposing weaknesses in Rubio and Trump.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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