MANCHESTER, N.H. — Sen. Marco Rubio on Tuesday told supporters he was “disappointed” in his poor showing in the New Hampshire primary, blaming a poor debate performance for setting back a presidential campaign that had been on the rise after a stronger than expected result in Iowa just eight days ago.
“Our disappointment tonight was not on you. It’s on me. It’s on me. I did not do well on Saturday night,” he said, referring to his poor debate performance. “So listen to this: That will never happen again.” Rubio supporters who gathered for his election night party in Manchester were encouraged by the senator’s remarks, saying it gave them confidence that he could rebound in the days ahead.
It appeared Rubio finished fifth in the state, with his support hovering around 11 percent. It was a showing that did the opposite of eliminating the other candidates in the “establishment lane” of the race.
It seems clear that the Florida senator’s poorly reviewed debate performance Saturday night blunted his momentum here and played a role in the outcome. Before Rubio’s debate slip-up, his numbers were on the rise in the Granite State, with supporters of his, and opponents of winner Donald Trump, believing he would finish clearly in second with an outside chance of surging into first. That would have set him apart from the pack of candidates believed to be competing for a similar group of voters. But it was not to be.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich stormed into second place with 15 percent of the vote, while billionaire businessman Trump won a landslide victory with 34 percent.
Rubio, who was considered by many to be the most electable GOP candidate against Hillary Clinton, stumbled in Saturday evening’s televised debate when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie accused him of being too inexperienced for the presidency. Christie charged he was overly reliant on canned lines in his speeches. Rubio fed into that perception by repeating the same talking point about Obama multiple times, earning the media’s mockery and the skepticism of Granite State voters.
Now Rubio will soldier on to South Carolina in need of a comeback of sorts. The Republican field is still fairly crowded and remains competitive. But the senator will have to make the case to voters and campaign contributors that he remains positioned to win the 2016 nomination. Rubio finished third in Iowa, just 1 percentage point out of second. That might look less of an achievement, however, when paired with his weak showing in New Hampshire.
At the Rubio election night party at the Radisson Hotel in Manchester, Rubio entered to chants of “Mar-co! Mar-co! Mar-co!”
He told a story of his father, a bartender, overcoming adversity when Rubio was a child.
“Not all days are going to be great days,” he said. “We’re not always going to get things the way we want, but in the end I’m confident that not only will this campaign be successful, but America will be successful as well.”
He vowed to come back to New England to campaign in later states. “Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, we’ll see you in a few weeks,” he said. “And South Carolina, we are on the way.”
Supporters at the watch party were defiant. Rather than dwell on the New Hampshire results, they said in interviews that they expect the senator to regroup for the primaries to come and eventually emerge as the GOP nominee. Their hopes were reinforced by his concession that he fell short in the Granite State because of mistakes he made — his vow to make sure it never happens again.
“He blew me away, just the honesty, and so genuine,” said Russ Kelly, 45, one of his local supporters. “Frankly, it was five minutes during the debate that he didn’t perform well. The rest of the debate he was fantastic. So, for him to come out and say: ‘It was my fault —not you — it’s me,’ just shows the class and I think, ultimately, he’s got the staying power that the others don’t have.”
“That was amazing. I don’t know anybody else who would have said that. It was amazing, it was so honest and sincere,” added Kathy Bove, who was active on Rubio’s behalf during the New Hampshire campaign. “There’s fight in him it’s not over yet.”
Earlier in the day, as Rubio visited polling stations to encourage supporters and volunteers, he said he felt good about the race and looked forward to campaigning in South Carolina. “We feel great,” Rubio told reporters. “Glad to be here today and we feel real good. We’re going to close strong. So, we feel real good.”
The Rubio campaign was maintaining that this race was always likely to be a protracted fight for nominating delegates, and unlikely to clarify until late March or early April. The senator has a full day of campaigning in South Carolina beginning Wednesday, with another televised debate scheduled for Saturday in Greenville, S.C. Rubio’s team views the Feb. 20 primary as an opportunity to make up ground, especially given the endorsement of popular Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. And on Feb. 23, the race moves to Nevada, a state where Rubio spent part of his childhood.
