Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have virtually the same message after a close finish in Saturday’s South Carolina primary: I’m the most electable.
The two senators, who completed for second place with Rubio coming out slightly ahead, each told CNN’s Jake Tapper that they’re best poised to beat Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders in the general election. Both said they are going to pick up more GOP primary voters as other candidates drop out.
“We can’t lose this election,” Rubio said on the program “State of the Union,” Sunday morning. “That’s what’s going to drive voters from here on out.”
“I’m the conservative who can unite our party, grow our party,” he said. “We have to win and if I’m nominated, we will.”
Recent polls tabulated by RealClearPolitics show that in a head-to-head matchup with Clinton, Rubio would win by 5 percentage points, while Cruz would be virtually neck-and-neck with the former secretary of state. Polls say that GOP front-runner Donald Trump would lose to Clinton by a few percentage points.
Rubio’s been emphasizing those findings. He told Tapper Sunday that Democrats are most afraid of him as a general election candidate, evidenced by the time, energy and money the party is spending on attacking him.
“Everyone now acknowledges that’s me,” Rubio said. “That’s why they spend so much time and money attacking me.”
Cruz also insisted he could beat Clinton next fall, but also emphasized that he’s the only candidate thus far to beat fellow GOP contender Donald Trump in a primary. Trump handily won the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries, but was bested in Iowa by Cruz.
“Now it’s apparent that the only campaign that can beat Donald Trump is our campaign,” Cruz said. “The closer it gets to a head-to-head race, the stronger position we’re in.”
And both men argued that as other candidates drop out of the race, most recently Jeb Bush, who withdrew last night, they’ll be able to strengthen their respective positions by nabbing new voters. Rubio said the nomination race was “reset” Saturday night, making it effectively a three-person contest going forward.
“This is where I think the race last night was reset in a way, I think, will be very beneficial to our efforts,” Rubio said.
