New Hampshire Day 1: An Inside Look at All Things Rubio
By: Talia Land, Allison Garfield, and Patrick Jeffry
With just four days left until the New Hampshire primary, the Granite State is gearing up to cast their votes for this year’s presidential election.
On the outskirts of all the madness that surround Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, waits what some call the “Republican savior,” Marco Rubio.
Rubio, who is on the upswing in the polls after a solid performance in Iowa, is looking for another high place finish this Tuesday. His supporters are more optimistic than ever.
“I am expecting Rubio to do well in the debate tonight and win the Republican nomination.” said Anthony, a volunteer at the Rubio Headquarters.
The Rubio headquarters, which are bustling with pizza orders, phone-calls, and enthusiastic volunteers, is the main hub for all things Rubio gearing up for Tuesday. His supporters like Anthony, from Middlebury, Vermont, ooze confidence heading into the big day. “Rubio has a key grasp on the issues.” Anthony says. “He handles himself well and doesn’t focus on the attacks.” Like many New Hampshire residents, Anthony believes that this year is a critical election year and one that should be decided based solely on the issues.
On the other side of town, Doug Kane, a New Hampshire native is still unsure of who he is voting for. He is a registered independent and has no intention of voting for a democrat, but still has major reservations on Senator Rubio and his platform. The biggest issue for Kane is immigration. Kane stated that although “there is no real solution” to the problem, he doesn’t want people from other countries to take his children’s jobs. Rubio’s role in the Gang of Eight bill does not make him a favorable candidate to Mr. Kane. In Kane’s opinion, Rubio’s biggest rivals, Cruz and Trump, seem untrustworthy, yet Rubio still has not fully gained his vote. Kane does admit that his friends, who are mostly low information voters, are voting for Rubio.
The problem might not lie in just Marco Rubio, though. Mr. Kane says that he has doubts about all of the Republicans running. With close to 40% of New Hampshire residents registered as Independents, Rubio, and all of the Republicans need to have a strong presence the next few days in order to win the primary.
During the critical primary week, New Hampshire comes to life with not only excited residents, but also thousands of reporters and journalists from all over the world. One of whom, Vaughn Hillyard, an NBC Political Reporter, weighed in on his opinions on Rubio. “Rubio has been patient,” he said, “which is a hard thing to do in a presidential campaign.” The key, Hillyard says, is getting a strong showing at events all the way through to the finish. While Rubio is a solid speaker and seems polished, Hillyard says that all of the candidates are “very much human, just like you and me.”
In a Q&A with student journalists, highly successful New York Times political reporter, Michael Barbaro, echoed Hillyard’s opinion. Politicians are fathers, uncles and real people with interesting stories Barbaro reminded the students. When asked about Rubio’s chances in the election, Barbaro political reporter said “he’s hitting a sweet spot.” He stressed that the Senator is really mainly up against those candidates on the Republican side most like him i.e. Christie, Bush, and Kasich, and his stats against those candidates show just how well he’s doing.
Overall, Marco Rubio has waged a campaign centered around garnering a more national base of support. Through dominant debate performances and many notable endorsements, Rubio has managed to secure loyal support outside of the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire, as evidenced by Anthony’s commitment to drive two and a half hours to volunteer at Rubio’s campaign headquarters. One potential challenge posed to Rubio is how to attract New Hampshire’s undecided voters, like Doug Kane.
New Hampshire has a long history of fiercely independent voters, who prefer to wait up until the last possible moment to decide who they would like to vote for. They have a notorious record of voting against expectations, as well as choosing different candidates than Iowa. Of the Republican leaning undecided voters, a large group of them tend to lean Libertarian. This might prove to be a problem for Rubio, whose aggressive and active foreign policy platform, as well as his strong support for NSA’s civilian monitoring, are extremely unpopular with Libertarians. And while these voters aren’t essential to the ever-forming Rubio coalition, securing their support might be the difference between an at expectation performance or another strong above expectation performance. What could draw independent or key voters to Rubio’s side are his amiable qualities. Barbaro said it well,
“There is a commonality between the people at Rubio events.They like his optimism, his youth, and his ‘parents were immigrants’ story.”
The key now is for Rubio to get these people who see these positives to vote. If he can unite the people, he may just be in for some success.
