“I’d call voters and ask them, ‘Are you supporting Marco?’ and many people said, “Not after the debate,’” Morris said. “It fed exactly into the narrative that he’s young and inexperienced, nothing more than 25-second speeches.”
Morris said many voters told him they were considering Rubio but defected to Kasich after the debate. As a result, Morris said he’s pleased and reassured that Rubio “owned the debate snafu.”
Glum looks filled the faces of Rubio fans at the watch party as the evening wore on and the networks awarded Trump the gold and Kasich the silver. They traveled from states like Virginia, New York, Vermont, and Massachusetts to celebrate with their candidate. About a dozen who spoke to Bloomberg Politics said they had hoped for a second-place Rubio finish; all singled out the candidate’s debate performance as the crucial gut-punch.
“I believe that was it. All the signs were that he had momentum,” said Kurt Wright, a representative in the Vermont General Assembly. He worried that Rubio’s stumble undercut a core rationale for his candidacy: that he was best-positioned to defeat Hillary Clinton, who remains the favorite for the Democratic nomination despite a resounding loss to U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Tuesday.
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