{"id":3644,"date":"2016-02-23T09:01:40","date_gmt":"2016-02-23T17:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/rubio-builds-momentum-cruz-camp-struggling\/"},"modified":"2016-02-23T09:01:40","modified_gmt":"2016-02-23T17:01:40","slug":"rubio-builds-momentum-cruz-camp-struggling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/rubio-builds-momentum-cruz-camp-struggling\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubio builds momentum, Cruz camp struggling"},"content":{"rendered":"

ELKO, Nevada<\/strong> \u2014 Marco Rubio amassed increasing support for his candidacy while Ted Cruz\u2019s campaign showed signs of struggle as Republican presidential candidates crisscrossed Nevada on Monday on the final day of campaigning ahead of the state\u2019s GOP caucuses.<\/p>\n

Cruz told reporters Monday he has asked his campaign spokesman, Rick Tyler, to resign for tweeting a story that falsely alleged Rubio insulted the Bible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not a campaign that is going to question the faith of another candidate for president,\u201d he said, calling Tyler \u201ca good man\u201d and noting that he deleted the tweet once he discovered it was false.<\/p>\n

Tyler did not return telephone, text or email messages left by The Associated Press seeking comment.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time that Cruz\u2019s campaign has been accused by rivals of using questionable tactics. Cruz apologized to GOP hopeful Ben Carson earlier this month after his campaign promoted a news story suggesting that Carson was getting out of the race. Cruz\u2019s campaign has also acknowledged creating a website that used a computer program to create a fake picture of Rubio shaking hands with President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n

Speaking during a campaign stop in Elko, Nevada, earlier Monday, Rubio criticized Cruz for the incident and asked whether Cruz would fire anyone involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s every single day something comes out of the Cruz campaign that\u2019s deceptive and untrue, and in this case goes after my faith,\u201d Rubio told reporters when asked about the incident. \u201cI guess one of their spokespersons apologized, and I accept their apology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republican front-runner Donald Trump lashed out at Cruz over Twitter on Monday, saying that Cruz \u201chas now apologized to Marco Rubio and Ben Carson for fraud and dirty tricks. No wonder he has lost Evangelical support!\u201d He reiterated his calls for disqualifying Cruz because of \u201chis fraudulent win in Iowa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump was scheduled to hold two rallies in Nevada \u2014 one in Elko and another later in Las Vegas. Trump\u2019s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Monday that the billionaire businessman has been seeking advice from former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani as he gradually expands his tight inner circle.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, establishment heavyweights continued to back Rubio, with many saying they see him as the candidate who can unite a disharmonious Republican Party. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch were the latest to endorse Rubio. South Florida\u2019s three Cuban-American members of Congress also said that they shifted their support to Rubio, having previously supported for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush\u2019s now defunct bid.<\/p>\n

Former Sen. Bob Dole told ABC News on Monday that he too had been backing Bush, but he\u2019s now supporting Rubio because \u201che wants to grow the party as opposed to Cruz. I don\u2019t know what he wants to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Friday, Rubio has added 12 new Congressional or gubernatorial endorsements, while Trump and Cruz have added none.<\/p>\n

While five men officially remain in the race for the Republican nomination, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy billed it as a two-man contest between Trump and Rubio. <\/p>\n

Speaking to MSNBC\u2019s \u201cMorning Joe\u201d Monday, McCarthy said Trump\u2019s victory and Rubio\u2019s second-place finish in Saturday\u2019s South Carolina primary dealt a blow to Cruz\u2019s strategy to win the nomination. The California congressman predicted voters in Florida, Rubio\u2019s home state, would determine whether Rubio continues or Trump easily rolls on to the nomination.<\/p>\n

Cruz on Saturday characterized a two-man contest as well \u2014 between him and Trump. But Rubio, who campaigned in South Carolina alongside the state\u2019s GOP Gov. Nikki Haley, has continued to capitalize on the momentum from his second-place finish.<\/p>\n

Across the country, Ohio Gov. John Kasich turned his attention to Virginia, which is among the dozen states voting on March 1.<\/p>\n

Kasich, who finished second in New Hampshire\u2019s Republican primary, won the endorsement of Tom Ridge, a former Homeland Security secretary and Pennsylvania governor.<\/p>\n

Ridge had supported Bush for president since early 2015 and campaigned with him in South Carolina. Bush quit the race Saturday after a disappointing finish in the Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries.<\/p>\n

Kasich\u2019s campaign says Ridge is signing on as a national co-chairman.<\/p>\n

Democratic presidential hopefuls coming off a tight battle for Nevada kicked off the week on opposite ends of the country Monday. Hillary Clinton was fundraising in northern California, while Bernie Sanders held a rally in Massachusetts, another Super Tuesday state. South Carolina votes in the next Democratic primary on Saturday.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Riccardi reported from Las Vegas. Associated Press writers Vivian Salama in Washington, Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin; David Eggert in Michigan, Andrew Demillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; and Alanna Durkin, Michael Blood and Matthew Barakat in Virginia contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ELKO, Nevada \u2014 Marco Rubio amassed increasing support for his candidacy while Ted Cruz\u2019s campaign showed signs of struggle as Republican presidential candidates crisscrossed Nevada on Monday on the final day of campaigning ahead of the state\u2019s GOP caucuses. Cruz told reporters Monday he has asked his campaign spokesman, Rick Tyler, to resign for tweeting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":3645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-3644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3644"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=3644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}