WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) – Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio sprinted toward the Iowa caucuses Sunday, avoiding direct confrontations with his opponents and instead, projecting a vision that looks more toward the general election.
The Florida senator was in Cedar Rapids and Waterloo, part of a nine-day blitz across the state, campaigning with confidence to audiences numbering in the hundreds, as preference polls showed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and billionaire businessman Donald Trump ahead in Iowa.
Iowans will vote in the country’s lead-off contest on Feb. 1.
“We are not just picking a political party,” he told 400 people in a Cedar Rapids hotel ballroom. “We are picking the very identity of our nation. That is what’s at stake in this election.”
Campaigning in eastern Iowa, Rubio touted a scheduled joint appearance with Iowa’s popular Republican freshman Sen. Joni Ernst Monday. Ernst, elected in 2014, is among several younger, newer members of Congress joining Rubio on the road – though Ernst says she will not endorse anyone before the caucuses.