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U.S. Republican Presidential candidate Marco Rubio, a senator from Florida, is under pressure to win his home state in Tuesday's primary, as losing the key state could well mean his campaign is finished.
Tuesday saw two crucial Republican primary races in the states of Ohio and Florida, at a time when brash billionaire Donald Trump is leading in nationwide polls. Rubio, Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich have been fighting tooth and nail against Trump. And experts said if Rubio does not win Florida on Tuesday, he will likely drop out of the race.
"If Rubio loses Florida to Trump, his presidential campaign is finished," Brookings Institution's senior fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.
"He has won only a few states and is far behind in the delegate tally. Without the winner-take-all delegates from his home state, there is virtually no way he can become the GOP nominee," West said.
Indeed, if Rubio exits the race, it will be a three-way contest between Trump, Kasich, and Cruz, he said.
"The latter two will split the anti-Trump vote and help the tycoon become the Republican nominee," he added.
Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, told Xinhua that if Rubio loses Florida, there is no path forward for him.
"Without Florida he will likely stop his campaign," he said.
Dan Mahaffee, an analyst with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, echoed other analysts' sentiments, arguing that Rubio has no realistic path to the nomination other than being chosen in some kind of contested convention.
"He has to win Florida to remain in that conversation, but all the polling indicates that Trump has a solid lead," Mahaffee said.
Indeed, just a few years ago Rubio was seen as the Republican Party's great hope - the son of Cuban immigrants and a rising star that could bring the party into the 21st century, at a time when the party has admitted its need to reach out to America's increasingly changing cultural and demographic landscape.
Analysts said Rubio's campaign went wrong for a number of reasons, arguing that his style on the debate stage seemed like he was reciting pre-memorized answers, rather than speaking from the heart.
Rubio's youth has not worked in his favor in a party whose base remains older than that of the Democrats. Rubio often spoke in what seemed to be canned answers, at a time when Republican voters are hungry for a candidate who does not speak in the parlance of what they view as Washington elites who do not understand the needs of ordinary Americans.
All these put him at a disadvantage in the face of Trump, whose campaign has been speeding through the country like a freight train.
For his part, Trump has been able to tap into Americans' frustration over the economy, jobs and foreign policy like no other candidate, including Rubio, who proved he was no match for Trump's conversational yet outlandish and in-your-face style. Enditem
