Posted on 02/11/16
| News Source: Yahoo News
OKATIE, S.C. (AP) — The best hope of the Republican establishment just a week ago, Marco Rubio suddenly faces a path to his party's presidential nomination that could require a brokered national convention.
That's according to Rubio and his senior team, who told The Associated Press that the Republican nomination fight will likely go on for another three months, if not longer. It's a worst-case scenario for the Florida senator and many Republican officials alike who hoped to avoid a prolonged and painful nomination fight in 2016.
But after a disappointing fifth-place finish in New Hampshire, a long delegate slog to the party's July presidential nominating convention may be the only chance Rubio has left.
"I don't think it necessarily is negative," Rubio said Thursday when asked about the possibility of a so-called brokered, or contested, convention. He cited the Democratic Party's 2008 clash between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that went deep into the primary season.
"The Clinton-Obama campaign went all 50 states and every territory," Rubio told reporters as he campaigned in South Carolina. "They didn't even wrap it up until June... Then they had all sorts of uncertainty going into their convention."
"Whatever it is, we're prepared for it," he said.