There are five Republicans still in the presidential race, but on Monday, several prominent Republicans portrayed it as a two-man contest between Donald Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio. With establishment stalwart Jeb Bush out of the race, Rubio notched several high-profile endorsements heading into Tuesday's GOP caucus in Nevada, and both Rubio and Trump took advantage of Sen. Ted Cruz's firing of his campaign spokesman to reiterate their charge that Cruz relies on dirty tricks.
Trump is expected to win the Nevada contest, and polls put him ahead in the majority of Super Tuesday primary states. GOP insiders are resigned to Trump triumphing on March 1, Byron York reports at The Washington Examiner, and the party has decided it has three weeks to narrow this down to a two-person race and stall Trump's momentum. "It's a risky strategy, but it's all the establishment has at this point," York says. So they are building up Rubio, who has notched 12 endorsements from governors or members of Congress since Friday, versus zero for Trump or Cruz.
"Make no mistake, this is a two-man race," Sen. Dean Heller (Nevada) told a Rubio rally in Reno on Monday. "This is between the Donald and Marco Rubio." House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy made a similar argument on MSNBC. Former Sen. Bob Dole, the GOP's 1996 presidential candidate, said Monday he had switched his endorsement from Bush to Rubio because Rubio "wants to grow the party as opposed to Cruz. I don't know what he wants to grow." Endorsements didn't seem to help Bush, however. If Trump continues to run against a divided field, the GOP nomination is widely believed to be his for the taking. And time is running out.
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