After winning three straight Republican contests in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, Donald Trump is closer than ever to becoming the Republican presidential nominee. Trump has been able to win these states with little more than 30 percent of the votes due to the fact that the GOP field is so heavily divided.
At this point, the only way to stop Trump is for three of the remaining four non-Trump candidates to drop out and support the one most able to defeat Trump in a one-on-one primary. And the best candidate to do that is Senator Marco Rubio.
According to State Rep. Jason Isaac (R-Dripping Spring), Rubio’s Texas co-chair, “if this was a Trump vs. Rubio race, Rubio would win overwhelmingly.”
Polling shows that Rubio would defeat Trump 57 percent to 41 percent in a one-on-one primary.
Though Ted Cruz claims that it is a two-man race between him and Trump, this is certainly a stretch when Cruz placed third to Rubio’s second in the two most recent contests in South Carolina and Nevada. The reality is, Cruz has hit his ceiling of support like the two past winners of the Iowa caucus, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum.
Even worse, in the South Carolina Republican primary, Trump beat Cruz among evangelical and conservative voters, two groups thought to be Cruz’s core base of support.
“Cruz, Kasich and Carson have to realize that staying in the race would lead to a Clinton or Sanders presidency,” Isaac said.
According to a recent Fox News Poll, Clinton would defeat Trump by 5 percent, while Sanders would crush Trump by 15 percent. Polls also show Rubio would perform better against Clinton and Sanders than Cruz.
I hope people don’t make the same mistake I did, which was voting for my first choice candidate, who ended up dropping out a few days later. If your first choice is Cruz, Kasich or Carson, you should strongly consider voting for Rubio instead.
If Cruz wins the Texas primary, the race will drag on until Trump becomes the Republican nominee. If Cruz loses in Texas, he will likely drop out, allowing Rubio to defeat Trump. A recent poll shows a three-way race within the margin of error in the Texas Republican primary: Cruz sits at 29 percent, Trump at 28 percent and Rubio at 25 percent. Rubio outperformed the polling average by 6.2 percent in Iowa and 3.7 percent in South Carolina, so he is in striking distance of placing first in Texas.
If you want a Republican president, you should vote for Rubio. A vote for someone other than Rubio will help Trump win the Republican nomination, which will in turn help Clinton or Sanders become President. Rubio is the only candidate that can unite the Republican Party and defeat the Democratic nominee. Make your vote count and vote for Rubio.
Hung is a second year law student from Brownsville.
