Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio endorsed the Convention of States Project during a rally in Iowa Wednesday, becoming only the third 2016 GOP candidate to do so.
Rubio told the crowd in Pella, Iowa, that he will throw the “weight of the presidency” behind the idea, which is popular among the conservatives he will need to persuade as he competes with Ted Cruz in the caucuses.
“One of the things I’m going to do on my first day in office — I will announce that I am a supporter, and as president I will put the weight of the presidency behind a Constitutional Convention of the States,” Rubio said. “So we can pass term limits on members of Congress and the Supreme Court, and so we can pass a balanced budget amendment.”
With the announcement, Rubio aligns himself with many top voices in conservative circles, including radio hosts Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck, former Sen. Tom Coburn and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Rubio also joined fellow 2016 candidates John Kasich and Mike Huckabee.
In a tweet sent out shortly after the announcement, Levin was excited by the news, asking if other GOP candidates will follow suit. Coburn also praised the Florida senator, saying that he “knows the answers” to fixing “America’s lack of confidence in Washington.
“Marco Rubio knows that the answers to American’s lack of confidence in Washington can only be fixed through an Article V Convention of States, restoring power to the states and the people by limiting the scope and power in Washington; placing term limits on politicians, forcing honest accounting and balanced budgets,” Coburn said in a statement. “He also knows that Washington will not fix itself.”
The call for a convention of the states is based in Article V of the Constitution, which allows 34 states to initiate this process.
“I’ve never been more excited about our prospects for achieving real governmental reform as I am right now, on the eve of 2016,” said Mark Meckler, who runs the Convention of States push. ” Every day moves us closer and closer to the historic call for a Convention of States to restrain the federal government. And today moved us one giant step closer.”
