Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
GOP hopefuls following varied strategies to S.C.
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Trying to re-establish his place as a White House contender, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio started unloading on nearly all of his fellow Republican candidates, declaring them unprepared for the national security responsibilities of the presidency.
Ted Cruz, meanwhile, said Donald Trump isn’t conservative enough to be the GOP nominee. Jeb Bush’s backers began painting John Kasich as weak on defense. Kasich maintained that he’s a nice guy.
And Trump, the first-time candidate who leads them all, headed to Louisiana, which doesn’t vote until March 5, two weeks after next-up South Carolina takes its shot at bringing order to this scrambled Republican race for president.
Rubio tried to embrace the GOP uncertainty Thursday, lashing out at Trump, Cruz and Bush on national security at a retiree community outside Hilton Head, S.C. He suggested that a nomination fight lasting through to the GOP’s summer convention isn’t a negative, ultimately leaving the delegates to argue over a nominee after they convene.
On real estate mogul Trump, Rubio declared: “Negotiating a hotel deal in another country is not foreign policy experience.”
Rubio also said that Bush, his former mentor in Florida politics, has no foreign-policy experience either. Rubio accused Cruz, a fellow firstterm senator, of hurting U.S. military might with his budget stances.
His comments marked a shift in rhetoric as Rubio tries to retool his campaign days after his fifth-place finish in the New Hampshire primary; it also highlights the layered battle in South Carolina, as candidates in a still crowded field feel out their best strategies for surviving here and advancing into the March primary schedule, when 58 percent of the party’s delegate total will be at stake.
Polls suggest Trump leads in South Carolina and nationally, with Cruz running second. Rubio banked on coming into South Carolina as the clear favorite for traditionalist Republicans wary over Trump and Cruz, creating effectively a three-man race going forward. Instead, he finished New Hampshire looking up at Kasich, the sitting Ohio governor, and at Bush, the former Florida governor.
Cruz is leaning heavily on religious and tea party conservatives, a sizable faction of the South Carolina primary electorate expected to top 700,000 voters, far outpacing Iowa and New Hampshire. Exit polls from Iowa and New Hampshire show Trump competed well with Cruz among voters who call themselves born-again Christians.
“You run first by energizing your base,” said Cruz spokesman Catherine Frazier, confirming that while Cruz “will compete statewide” in South Carolina, he will concentrate his time in the upstate where religious conservatives are dominant. She confirmed Cruz will continue to highlight Trump’s past, an allusion to his public support for abortion rights and samesex marriage.
Bush and Kasich, meanwhile, are concentrating their early efforts along the South Carolina coast, which includes many transplants, veterans and active military members — and which has trended in the past to more moderate candidates such as Mitt Romney, the GOP’s 2012 nominee, and John McCain, the 2008 nominee.
As they did in New Hampshire, where Kasich finished second, Bush aides have accused Kasich of being weak on defense because of his congressional position on base closures.