ORLANDO, Fla. — When it comes to making a real run for the Republican presidential nomination, Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz didn’t mince words when he attended a town hall meeting in Orlando Friday.
“What is abundantly clear right now is there are only two candidates who can actually win the nomination,” he told the crowd.
The two candidates he was referring to: himself and front-runner Donald Trump.
Republican Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio is under pressure to win his home state, but Cruz seemed to be counting on him to lose during primary voting Tuesday.
“Nobody else has any plausible path to (the needed 1,237 delegates),” Cruz said. “So the choice here in the state of Florida is real simple: Do you want Donald Trump to be the nominee or not?”
Rubio looked to the same “it’s me or Trump” strategy Friday when his campaign released a statement saying any vote not for Rubio is a vote for the billionaire businessman.
According to the most recent polls, neither Cruz nor Rubio is expected to edge Trump in Florida.
Rubio is planning a 2 p.m. campaign stop in The Villages Sunday at the Rohan Rec Center.