He talked directly about the high stakes of Florida’s outcome. “I’ve always felt that the winner of the Florida primary is probably going to be the nominee,” he said.

But he stopped short of saying he would drop out if he lost the primary in his home state. “We haven’t even thought about that,” he said. “We’re just focused on winning Florida.”

In the chaos of a heated campaign, however, Rubio admited that he regrets the tone of his political attacks on Trump, although he said they were in response to Trump’s own negativity.

Rubio spent about 15 minutes greeting people eating late lunches at the Yabba Island Grill and a crowd of about 200 supporters who crowded into Sugden Plaza with Rubio bumper stickers, signs and copies of Rubio’s book 100 Innovative Ideas for Florida in downtown Naples on Friday afternoon. The crowd was made up largely of snowbirds, some from as far away as Iowa and Massachusetts, although a few locals ducked out from work to see their home state political celebrity.