Rubio in Spartanburg: SC's primary is 'conservative'
SPARTANBURG – Florida Sen. Marco Rubio brought his presidential campaign to Spartanburg Wednesday and said South Carolina’s more-conservative Republican primary electorate gives him a chance to bounce back from a disappointing, fifth-place finish in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday night.
Rubio also criticized one of his rivals for the GOP nomination, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, for voting to cut defense spending.
“When I am president of the United States we will rebuild the U.S. military because it makes the world a better place,” Rubio declared to applause during a speech at the Spartanburg Marriott.
Asked how he would improve his performance over New Hampshire, Rubio told reporters that South Carolina’s first-in-the-South presidential preference primary on Feb. 20 is a “conservative primary.”
“I mean if you’re voting in (the South Carolina) primary, you’re a conservative Republican who believes in limited government and free enterprise and especially in a strong national defense,” he said. “That’s what I do. That’s what my whole record is built on, are those principles. So it’s great to be here and it’s great to be part of a conservative primary.”
During his stump speech, Rubio didn’t mention Cruz by name, referring only to another senator who’s running for president.
“The only budget he’s ever voted for is a budget sponsored by Rand Paul that brags about cutting defense spending,” Rubio said about Cruz.
In response, Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said the Texas senator voted for a Rubio budget amendment that would have raised the 2016 defense budget from $620 billion to $697 billion.
"Campaigns that misconstrue the truth about their opponents' records do so because they don’t have a record of their own to stand upon, as is the case with Rubio," Frazier said.
Appearing on stage with Rubio were two of his four children and two South Carolina Republicans who have endorsed him – Sen. Tim Scott of Charleston and U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy of Spartanburg.
Introducing Rubio, Gowdy told the audience that South Carolina is a “state of new beginnings.”
“If we nominate Marco Rubio, I assure you he will be the next president of the United States,” Gowdy said.
One member of the audience, Robin Woodfin, an evangelical Christian from Spartanburg, said she was impressed with Rubio’s speech.
“I like his very positive outlook,” said Woodfin, an adjunct professor in Spanish at Converse College and Zumba instructor who teaches her three children at home. “I would have liked to have heard more differences, though, between him and the other Republicans who are running because I’m here to find out the differences between them.”
Woodfin said she wants to learn more about Cruz but is "100 percent" opposed to another Republican presidential candidate, New York billionaire Donald Trump.
“I think he is not Christian in any of his beliefs, and he’s pretending to be Christian to get the votes,” Woodfin said about Trump.
Talking to reporters, Rubio said his awkward repetition of a line of attack against President Obama during a televised debate in New Hampshire Saturday “probably cost us a couple of thousand votes of undecided at the last moment.”
Rubio said he turned to criticize Obama as Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was attacking him during the debate because he doesn’t “like Republicans fighting on national television. I think it helps the Democrats. They love to see us do that.”
“And so I wanted to avoid that and just kind of tilt it away from the question they asked and tilt it back to what I think is the most important issue in this campaign, and that’s the damage Barack Obama has done,” Rubio said.
“But in an effort to do that, you know you create this perception you’re trying to avoid something. So from now on, if there’s an issue to be dealt with, even if it means we have to tussle a little bit, I’m going to do it.”
