MarcoRubio began during Thursday's debate, launching a direct challenge to Donald Trump's appeal to working-class voters. (File Photo)
Mainstream Republican officials and donors have lined up behind Marco Rubio in the week since former Florida Governor Jeb Bush suspended his campaign for president. And yet Rubio's team concedes that it's not enough to stop Donald Trump.
Rubio has been forced to attack the billionaire businessman's character earlier than planned.
The Florida senator had hoped to wait until the chaotic Republican nominating campaign had shrunk to a two-man race. But with a growing sense of urgency among the Republican establishment to settle on a Trump alternative, Rubio is trying to slow Trump and cast himself as the savior of the party's future.
"I will never stop until we keep a con man from taking over the party of Reagan and the conservative movement," Rubio thundered at a rally on Friday.
It is a delicate balance for the 44-year-old first-term senator. But the strategy is necessary, says Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, Rubio's latest big endorsement: "Rubio looked around and thought, 'Well, I might not like it, but that's what the media is covering and that's what people are responding to.'"
Rubio began during Thursday's debate, launching a direct challenge to Trump's appeal to working-class voters.
In recent days, Rubio has pointed out Trump's on-stage perspiration and hinted, jokingly, that the billionaire businessman may have wet his pants.
"It's amazing to me. A guy with the worst spray tan in America is attacking me for putting on makeup," Rubio said as he campaigned on Saturday. "Donald Trump likes to sue people. He should sue whoever did that to his face."
Rubio's new approach is a fight for survival.
He trails Trump in virtually all of the 11 states holding nominating contests on March 1, known as Super Tuesday. He has finished in no better than second place in the first four primary contests, while Trump has won three out of four. And Texas Senator Ted Cruz remains a top-tier contender, even after finishing in third place in the last three contests.
In the past two weeks, Rubio has won the backing of four governors and 20 members of Congress, more than all of his Republican rivals combined.
But given Trump's momentum, Rubio's team says the senator's best chance for the party's nomination might be a contested national convention in July. That could happen only if Rubio prevents Trump from accumulating the majority of delegates in the months-long primary season that extends through June.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)