Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida on Friday tried to set some expectations for Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas ahead of Monday’s Iowa caucuses, saying at this point Mr. Cruz would be the front-runner in the state.
“We feel good, and I think we’re growing in our support here, and I feel very positive about it,” Mr. Rubio said on Fox News. “Obviously, Ted Cruz would be the front-runner. He’s spent basically all of his money in Iowa.”
“He’s put a lot of time and effort here, and obviously it’s a place that he thinks is very important to him,” Mr. Rubio said. “And it is important to us as well, and so we’re working hard, and we’ll see how far we can get. We feel very good about it.”
Businessman Donald Trump has been leading Mr. Cruz in the state in recent polling, with Mr. Rubio in third in the latest RealClearPolitics average.
But Mr. Rubio said Mr. Trump hasn’t spent as much time in the state as Mr. Cruz has.
“Ted, as I said, has put a lot of money into Iowa and a lot of people into Iowa,” he said. “I’m just going off what Ted Cruz’s campaign was saying a few weeks ago. They basically were arguing in December that the game was over, and that they had won in Iowa. So, obviously we’ll see Monday night.”
Asked if he would take a third-place finish, Mr. Rubio said: “We want to get as many votes as we can.”
“As soon as we’re done in Iowa, we’re going to New Hampshire and South Carolina and Nevada, so this is a long process, but we feel really good,” he said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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