Rubio talks up Cruz as the front-runner in Iowa
Marco Rubio is building up expectations for Ted Cruz in Iowa, perhaps in the hopes that his rival for the White House falls shorts in Monday’s caucuses.
“Ted Cruz would be the front-runner. He spent all of his money in Iowa, he’s built as he has called it a historic ground game, he says he has 10,000 volunteers, he’s got all these people signed onto his campaign,” Rubio said Friday on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom” when asked who he thought was most likely to win the Hawkeye State.
{mosads}”He’s put a lot of time and effort here and obviously it’s a pace he feels is very important to him.”
That surprised Fox host Bill Hemmer, who asked the Florida senator why he didn’t name Donald Trump as the state’s favorite.
“Donald hasn’t spent as much time here as Ted and Ted has put a lot of money into Iowa, a lot of people into Iowa,” he said.
“We’ll see Monday night.”
Trump and Cruz have emerged in a league of their own in Iowa polling, with Trump holding a 7 percentage point lead in RealClearPolitics’s average of recent surveys.
Trump’s campaign has relied much more on large rallies across the country than typical retail politics. The real estate magnate has attended 49 events in the state, including a last-minute push over the past few weeks, compared to Cruz’s 140 events, according to the Des Moines Register’s count.
Expectations-setting is a key part of the primary process, as candidates seek to shape the media’s perception of the contest.
If Cruz is considered the front-runner by caucus day, anything outside of a first-place finish on Monday would be a disappointment.
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