NASHUA, N.H. — Now that George Pataki has bowed out of the race for the White House and endorsed Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio, the former New York governor has a new full-time job.
“I’m working to get Marco Rubio elected,” Pataki told the Washington Examiner Saturday.
Minutes later, Pataki was sprinting up driveways and speaking with voters in an upscale New Hampshire neighborhood to demonstrate he meant it.
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“I need the exercise. I didn’t hit the gym today,” he said, running to catch up with a female jogger. She later circled around the block to snap a picture with the governor and inform him of her steadfast support for Rubio.
(Gabby Morrongiello/Washington Examiner)
While Pataki ended his campaign for the Republican nomination in late-December, after months of polling around 1 percent in national and state-level surveys of GOP voters, he appeared happy to be back on the campaign trail Saturday — even if it was to support a former opponent.
In fact, not once did the former governor shy away from mentioning his own failed bid in his elevator pitch for Rubio.
And when one voter hesitated to open his door all the way, Pataki was quick to engage in a bit of self-deprecating humor.
“Don’t worry, I’m not running anymore,” he said.
For nearly an hour, the three-term governor stuffed pamphlets in the cracks of front doors, patiently answered voters’ questions and kept his fellow volunteers entertained with pithy one-liners.
“I’ve been shot at before,” he told Kathy Jackson, a Rubio volunteer since August, in front of a door marked “No political visits!”
(Gabby Morrongiello/Washington Examiner)
When the governor crossed paths with a group of Hillary Clinton canvassers, he half-jokingly advised them to “take the day off.”
“By the way, did you vote for me?” Pataki repeatedly asked homeowners who told him they’d previously lived in New York.
“Don’t answer that,” he’d later say.
But when conversations turned serious, and Pataki was asked to address Rubio’s experience or his involvement in crafting the controversial “Gang of Eight” immigration bill, he politely defended the Florida senator.
“Sen. Rubio understands that people have to come here legally, but he was a senator trying to get things done,” Pataki explained to one voter who was ambushed by Rubio volunteers when he went to retrieve his mail. “Now, he understands we have to protect Americans. He will close our borders [and] he will keep us safe.”
(Gabby Morrongiello/Washington Examiner)
“The most important thing in a candidate is their vision [and] the ideas they bring to people,” Pataki later said, during an interview with the Examiner, when asked what his message would be to voters who worry Rubio lacks the experience to be commander-in-chief.
“Marco Rubio, in my view, has the clearest, most positive agenda for America,” he continued. “He also has tremendous experience on the [Senate] Intelligence Committee, on the Foreign Affairs Committee and as a leader in the [Florida] State legislature.”
After reaching every home on the list, and a few passersby, Pataki was off to the nearest Dunkin’ Donuts to warm up over a cup of coffee.
But it wasn’t the last time voters could run into him on their front doorsteps, he said.
“I’m proud to not just be endorsing [Rubio], but to be working as hard as I can to help him win this election,” Pataki told the Examiner. “Wherever they want me, I’m happy to be out there to help.”
