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Daily Caller: Rubio's Candidacy May Cut Into Scott Walker's Appeal
Tuesday, April 14, 2015 07:05 AM
By: Elliot Jager
The formal entry of Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida into the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination could spell trouble for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, according to W. James Antle III of The Daily Caller.
Walker has been running ahead of the pack of declared and undeclared candidates. The most recent Fox News poll of national Republican primary voters has him maintaining his lead, with 15 percent support. He is generally out front in Iowa and New Hampshire polling, too.
Since he declared his presidential aspirations, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has also been pulling double-digit poll numbers. If the other announced candidates who are appealing to the conservative base, Rubio and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, also now start drawing double-digit support, this would necessarily "start eating into Walker's base," wrote Antle.
"Even with Paul, Cruz, Ben Carson and Mike Huckabee all at or near double digits, Walker is within 1.2 percentage points of [former Florida Gov. Jeb] Bush in the Real Clear Politics polling average," according to Antle. "And even that is mainly attributable to an ABC News/Washington Post poll that has Bush up by a bigger margin than any other recent survey."
Walker's advantage is his experience of actually running a state government and his demonstrated ability to repeatedly win in a Democratic-leaning state. On top of that, he is the conservative running generally ahead of Bush.
On the downside, wrote Antle, Cruz, Paul and Rubio are all better debaters and sound more knowledgeable about national and international issues. Rubio has already had a go at Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
"If at some point Walker no longer looks like he can beat Bush or that he is not as strong of a Hillary opponent as Rubio or Paul, he is in trouble."
And if conservatives find themselves divided, they face the prospect of seeing Bush capture the nomination, wrote Antle.
