Top Rubio adviser preparing donors for dismal Super Tuesday
Top Rubio adviser preparing donors for dismal Super Tuesday
By Anna Palmer
03/01/16 03:02 PM EST
Marco Rubio's top campaign adviser huddled with roughly 40 bundlers and K Streeters Tuesday morning to prepare them for a difficult primary election night—as well as to brief them on the campaign's plan for what to do next.
Terry Sullivan told supporters at campaign headquarters that the Florida Republican could secure just 100 delegates from Super Tuesday states in one of the scenarios he laid out.
Sullivan's prediction was part of his larger detailed powerpoint presentation going through different delegate counts for March, April and May. He told attendees that it would be mathematically impossible for Donald Trump to get to 1,237 delegate votes by the end of April, according to multiple attendees.
Sullivan said that Henry Barbour, a veteran Mississippi political operative, is leading Rubio's convention delegate strategy.
Several sources familiar with the meeting described it as an exercise in lowering expectations for how well Rubio needs to do in order to stay in the race for the White House.
"The pressure is going to be so great in April and May, and they feel like they are committed to working in the trenches," said one Rubio bundler who attended the meeting.
A Rubio spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sullivan's comments that the Rubio campaign plans to take this all the way to the Republican National Convention echo a message he delivered in New York last week. And it dovetails with what Rubio himself has been saying on the stump since Saturday, vowing to "campaign as long as it takes" in order to prevent Donald Trump from winning the nomination and potentially upending the Republican Party as a whole.
The Rubio campaign is holding another Tuesday session on Capitol Hill to walk backers through the delegate map.
Sullivan responded to multiple questions from attendees on everything from the campaign's floor strategy to how do they deal with Ohio Gov. John Kasich not dropping out of the race.
"A vote for Kasich is a vote for Donald Trump," Sullivan said, according to multiple sources.
The campaign also continued to assert that Ted Cruz winning Texas would be a high water mark for the campaign, given that so much of his strategy is based on doing well in the South.
Sullivan also got several inquiries about Florida and how Rubio would deal with a loss there. Sullivan said that he thought Jeb Bush would ultimately endorse Rubio and that he would win the state.
Not everyone who attended left the meeting thinking the campaign had a workable plan to dethrone Trump as the party's expected nominee.
"It was a presentation that defied reality," said one Rubio backer. "They said their convention strategy was not contingent on winning any states... Even if you go to the [second ballot] why would anyone say Marco Rubio is the guy to give it to?"
