Debate a chance for rivals to try to slow Trump

Many analysts warn the time for other candidates to block a trump nomination is running out.

“Florida is the single biggest prize of the primary season because it is the largest state to allocate its delegates on a winner-take-all basis”, said pollster Peter Brown.

Rubio adviser Todd Harris rebuffed the poll, saying Quinnipiac numbers are “way wrong”. “Period. Take it to the bank”.

The New York billionaire said the Texas senator didn’t have the backing of any senators “even though you work with these people”.

A second poll Thursday tempered the Quinnipiac results somewhat. Meanwhile, both Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz need to try and slow down the Trump Train by getting in clean jabs at the front-runner and generating memorable moments. “This debate is all about who is the Trump alternative”. “She’s in her early 40s while Trump will be 70 on election day”. Rubio is suggesting that Trump is winning only because the other candidates are splitting up the majority of the electorate.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has welcomed the GOP debate field to his home state, drawing whoops from the crowd. And why would they, when Rubio looks far from being able to hold his own state? He dropped out of the race last weekend after a disappointing fourth-place finish in the SC primary.

Trump’s popularity has shot up since the last Quinnipiac poll in Florida, in October. He wants to use bogus lawsuits and FCC censorship to suppress the speech of his critics, and recently pined for the “old days” when his supporters would have been allowed to beat protestors to the point where they “have to carried out on a stretcher”. There was some question about whether Trump knew what was going on with the Polish workers, but an appeals court ruled that if they did not know, “they should have known”. Marco Rubio of Florida, who takes 27 percent of the vote. Only 10 percent say the same for Rubio. But it seems unlikely she would qualify as the person from politics Trump seems to be looking for. “I don’t see that endorsement taking place”. Cruz has tried to remind voters that Rubio co-authored the bipartisan immigration bill that would have put millions of undocumented immigrants on a path to citizenship. He immediately went after Cruz and Rubio over their business skills.

Since Tuesday, a Rubio PAC, Conservative Solutions, has spent $245,430 in the D.C. media market for ads set to air through Tuesday’s primaries.

Trump’s other rivals face similar – if not quite as huge – challenges in their own states. Trump responded in typical fashion, tweeting that the former MA governor was “one of the dumbest and worst candidates” in GOP history. “It’s about turning out the base, turning out the voters, having Greg Abbott and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry on the campaign trail with us next week”.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich is addressing young people in his opening state.

Kasich has stayed in the race, insisting he will pick up delegates on Super Tuesday and a week later in Michigan’s primary.

Many Republican leaders are anxious about the prospect of a Trump nomination. Thirty-three percent of women back Trump; 30 percent back Rubio.

That’s a smaller margin than what Rubio’s losing by, though – something Kasich’s team has bragged about nearly as if it were a win in and of itself.