Marco Rubio Suspends Campaign After Losing Florida Primary

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks during a Republican primary night celebration rally at Florida International University in Miami, Fla., Tuesday, March 15, 2016. Rubio is ending his ... Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks during a Republican primary night celebration rally at Florida International University in Miami, Fla., Tuesday, March 15, 2016. Rubio is ending his campaign for the Republican nomination for president after a humiliating loss in his home state of Florida. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) MORE LESS
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This post has been updated.

Addressing supporters Tuesday night in Miami, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said he was suspending his campaign after a major loss to Republican Donald Trump in his home state’s primary.

“While it is not God’s plan that I be President in 2016 or maybe ever, and while today my campaign is suspended, the fact that I’ve even come this far is evidence of how special America truly is,” Rubio said.

He also said: “But after tonight, it is clear that while we are on the right side, this year, we will not be on the winning side.”

Rubio lost to Trump by a double-digit margin in Florida, which was viewed as a must-win for the senator to stay in the race.

He also took several not-so-veiled swings at the GOP frontrunner, saying he ran a campaign to be a leader “that would love all of the American people, even the ones that don’t love you back” and decried “the politics of resentment” which dominated the race.

“America’s in the middle of a real political storm, a real tsunami, and we should have seen this coming,” Rubio told the crowd.

Rubio continually tried to cast himself as the statesman alternative to the bombastic Trump who could unite a fractured Republican party. But he failed to gain traction in the GOP race, where he only won primary contests in Minnesota, Puerto Rico, and Washington D.C.

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Notable Replies

  1. No surprise here…

  2. Shutdown sequence initiated.

  3. So when he said earlier today that even if he lost Florida he would continue on, that was a lie.

    Micro Roboto must not have had the correct firmware upgrade last night.

  4. Better headline: “Rube Addresses the Rubes”

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