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BETTENDORF, Iowa (AP) —
Under pressure to emerge as the Republican mainstream's presidential contender, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is increasingly relying on a national strategy as he lowers expectations for February's primary contests.
He's betting big that Republican voters across the political spectrum will ultimately coalesce behind his candidacy in the state-by-state slog for delegates his team envisions for the months ahead.
It's a strategy fraught with risk for Rubio, who's still fighting to break out among the pack of candidates looking up at New York billionaire Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. The outsider favorites are dominating in Iowa less than two weeks before the state's leadoff caucuses.
For now at least, Rubio, a first-term senator, is embracing a patient approach that goes well beyond the four states with contests in February: Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
Rubio in recent days has cast himself as a passionate evangelical conservative, a national security hawk, an empathizer of immigrants in the country illegally, and someone who can bring new voters to the Republican Party. This, as he jabs at Trump, Cruz and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, yet works to capture the anger and frustration that fuel their candidacies.
"I won't be able to appeal to everybody on everything," Rubio told The Associated Press on Monday. "I want to get enough delegates to be the nominee."
But that's exactly the theme he projected as he campaigned through Iowa this week before a trip to New Hampshire, where he hopes to rise from a cluster of so-called establishment alternatives to Trump and Cruz.
"Too often, I think, as Republicans we have a bad choice," said Iowa state Sen. Jack Whitver, Rubio's state campaign chairman, introducing him at one of his many Iowa stops this week. The choice, he said, is often between "the establishment, moderate person that everyone says can win the election, or we have a true consistent conservative that everyone says can't win the election."
"This year we don't have to make that choice," he said. "This year, we can have it all."
Given Jeb Bush's continued struggles, some major Republican donors and elected officials see Rubio as their party's best candidate to defeat the leading Democrat, Hillary Clinton, in this fall's general election. But in a year when voters appear to be rejecting insiders, Rubio has struggled to tap the anti-establishment anger, putting him behind Cruz and Trump with time running out before the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses.
Facing that reality, Rubio's team has conceded he's unlikely to win any of the first three contests: Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
No Republican in the modern political era has won the presidential nomination without winning one of the first three states. Rubio's team sees a path around that history: finishing in the top three in those states and surviving until March. That's when party insiders expect the race to become a long haul because of new rules that award delegates proportionally.
The strategy also assumes some of Rubio's mainstream challengers will drop out out, leaving Rubio's mix of messages — his tea party rise, national security background and abiding conservative social positions — to allow him to unify the GOP.
"Any preconceived notions you have from previous cycles are out the window," said California-based donor John Jordan, who is running a pro-Rubio super PAC. "Given that, I don't think it's necessary to win one of the early states." He calls this "a rolling national election."
Rubio's team describes his message not as scattered, but as based on Ronald Reagan's "three-legged stool" with conservative approaches to economic, social and national security policy.
Rubio emphasized his religious faith in Iowa, where he's running an ad highlighting his opposition to abortion rights and where he told voters in the more socially conservative northern part of the state that his Christianity is "the single greatest influence in my life."
In more moderate eastern Iowa, Rubio asserted his credentials on military and foreign policy as unmatched in the field. "It's not even close," he said.
And the 44-year-old son of Cuban immigrants pressed the point in Ottumwa that he can bring people into the party who normally don't vote for it.
"We have some differences," Rubio said of the candidates in the field. "But it's a big tent."
Yet when asked why he was more electable than Trump, he nodded to the raucous throngs that have flocked to Trump's rallies.
"What he's tapped into is a real frustration that needs to be addressed," Rubio said.
Ottumwa physician Michael Shaeffer, who asked Rubio what set him apart, wanted more, but still plans to support him.
"We're not going to vote necessarily for the best person," Shaeffer said. "We're going to vote for the one with the best chance of winning."
NORWALK, Iowa (AP) —
Donald Trump brandished the endorsement of conservative Republican firebrand Sarah Palin at an Iowa rally Wednesday in the increasingly intense 2016 GOP presidential sweepstakes.
"We had a big day yesterday. Yesterday was amazing in every way," Trump told supporters in Norwalk, Iowa, as he kicked off another day of campaigning with less than two weeks to go before Iowa's kick-off caucuses. "Sarah came along and she said we love what's happening. It's a movement."
But Palin, who was expected to campaign alongside her new political ally Wednesday, was a no-show at the Iowa rally. A campaign spokeswoman did not immediately respond to questions about why she was not in attendance, but said that she would appearing at a rally later in the day in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Palin, the former governor of Alaska and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, erupted onto the stage in Ames, Iowa, Tuesday, announcing her support for Trump and echoing his campaign's mantra that it's time to "Make America Great Again."
"No more pussy-footing around," Palin told a fired-up crowd.
The endorsement comes as Trump is locked in a dead heat with Cruz in Iowa. The two have been ramping up their attacks against one another as the Feb. 1 caucuses have neared.
In the statement announcing the endorsement, Trump's campaign described Palin as a conservative who "helped launch the careers of several key future leaders of the Republican Party and conservative movement." The statement also quoted Cruz as once saying he "would not be in the United States Senate were it not for Gov. Sarah Palin. ... She can pick winners."
Campaigning in New Hampshire, Cruz said, "Regardless of what Sarah intends to do in 2016, I will remain a big, big fan of Sarah Palin."
Palin endorsed Cruz in his 2012 Senate race and said as recently as last month that he and Trump were both in her top tier of candidates, making the endorsement a symbolic blow to Cruz.
"I think it throws a pie into Sen. Cruz's face," said Trump supporter Tim Oelschlager, 56, who was at Wednesday's event in Norwalk. "It's kind of like somebody barbequing in your backyard, setting up a tent in your backyard."
Earlier Tuesday, Cruz faced another blow to his efforts in Iowa, after the state's Republican Gov. Terry Branstad said at a renewable fuels conference near Des Moines that Iowans should reject Cruz because he supports phasing out the fuel standard. Asked if he wants to see Cruz defeated in Iowa, Branstad responded: "Yes."
"I understand exactly what he's saying. And I think it has to do with more than ethanol," Trump said Wednesday, when he praised Branstad as "an amazing guy."
"Yesterday was a double. You had that statement and you had Sarah Palin," Trump reveled. "That was a good day for Trump."
During his remarks on Wednesday, Trump also zeroed in on Cruz, offering some of his most pointed attack lines yet. In addition to repeating questions about whether Trump's Canadian birth makes him ineligible to be president, he also pointed to bank loans Cruz failed to disclose.
"Goldman Sachs owns him, remember that folks," Trump charged. "I think when you go to caucus, you should think about that problem."
Palin's endorsement speech Tuesday evening combined the folksy charm and everywoman appeal that initially made her a GOP superstar with defiant taunting of a "busted" GOP establishment that she slammed for counting both Trump and herself out.
Palin offered her full-throated support for Trump and slammed President Barack Obama as the "capitulator in chief." Trump, she said, would be a commander in chief who would "let our warriors do their job and go kick ISIS' ass!"
She also took aim at the Republican establishment for "attacking their own front-runner" and offered a challenge to those who have suggested that Trump, whose positions on issues like gun control and abortion rights have shifted over the years, isn't conservative enough.
"Oh my goodness gracious. What the heck would the establishment know about conservativism?" she said. "Who are they to tell us that we're not conservative enough? ... Give me a break."
Palin was a virtual newcomer to the national political arena when 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain named her as his running mate. She has since risen to prominence as one of the most outspoken conservatives in the party. She signed on as a Fox News commentator after resigning as Alaska's governor in 2010, a job she held until last year.
Trump and Palin did not discuss how the endorsement had come about, but Trump's national political director, Michael Glassner, previously worked for her. Trump said earlier Tuesday that he doesn't typically put much stock in endorsements, but said of this one, "I think it could very well result in votes."
Palin has been expected to attend Trump's morning rally. His campaign had said she would "travel with the candidate to both events on Wednesday" and a message to supporters had touted "a very special guest" would be appearing.
Trump tweeted that he was "Traveling now with @SarahPalinUSA to Tulsa- massive crowd expected!" after the event.
NEW YORK (AP) —
Another plunge in the price of crude oil sent the stock market sharply lower.
Oil and gas companies led the way down Wednesday as sliding oil prices threatened even more damage to the battered energy sector.
Chevron fell 7 percent, the most in the Dow Jones industrial average.
The price of U.S. crude oil sank 7 percent and is trading at its lowest level since May 2003.
The Dow dropped 520 points, or 3.2 percent, to 15,549 as of 12:30 p.m. Eastern time.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 63 points, or 3.4 percent, to 1,817. The Nasdaq lost 150 points, or 3.4 percent, to 4,325.
U.S. indexes are down 10 percent or more since the beginning of the year.
Bond prices rose as investors shifted money out of stocks.