Voters leave Rubio debate watch-party prematurely, race for second wide open

Sen. Marco Rubio addresses a crowd at the Bedford town hall. Photo by Anna Sortino

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Following a pummeling by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christe and the rest of the Republican  field, several prospective voters attending Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s debate watch party Saturday night trickled out before the debate concluded.

More than a third of the crowd populating the multipurpose room did not stay until the end of the debate. After Christie lashed out at Rubio for only delivering  memorized soundbites, groans could be heard throughout the room after Rubio repeated the same line three times in quick succession and once more later in the debate.

“Let’s dispel once and for all with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Rubio said. “He know’s exactly what he’s doing.”

Minutes later, Rubio repeated himself word for word.

“There it is, the memorized 25-second speech,” Christie said. “There it is everybody.”

The debate, hosted by ABC at Saint Anselm College, was the last before voters head to the polls Tuesday across New Hampshire for the first-in-the-nation primary. Despite critics panning Rubio’s performance in the debate, volunteers for the campaign remained optimistic he remains the strongest candidate.

“He had a shaky moment early on when Christie attacked him over and over again, but after that I thought his message was really strong,” Craig Dupen, a volunteer from Dallas, Texas, said.

Other candidates in the field, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, largely let Christie do the attacking as they try to reboot their campaigns. Kasich framed himself with a sunny disposition, drawing a stark contrast to the fighting among other candidates.

In a state where many voters are registered as independents and decide their vote the day of the election, Rubio’s poor performance and the dispirited mood among his supporters post-debate may haunt him after expectations were set high following a stronger than expected outcome in Iowa.

Jeb Bush Town Hall Draws Large Crowd Saturday Morning

Earlier Saturday more than 700 people showed up to McKelvie Middle School in Bedford to listen to Bush speak before people were turned away at the door. Michael Bender, who covers Bush for Bloomberg Politics, called the town hall Bush’s best event he has seen in 15 months of covering him.

Many voters at the event were undecided, but a common message emerged for the crowd; a belief that once a moderate Republican emerged from the field candidates Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz would fall behind due to their divisiveness.

“I live two minutes down the road. I really like the others; they seem like real people. They think about stuff before they talk. They care,” Joe Noyalys said. “I’m a Sanders supporter, but Jeb would be my Republican candidate. I’m a registered Republican, so I might as well vote for a Republican.”

Another common theme that emerged was the belief that policy won’t be advanced unless a Republican is elected to the presidency, due to the likely retention of both chambers of Congress by the GOP.

“I’ve narrowed it down to Rubio, Kasich and Jeb. I agree that it’s really about your track record, your experience and who I think can work the best with Congress,” New Hampshire resident Alexander Mall said. “I don’t think the non-establishment candidates can do that. The best presidents are the ones who can work with Congress, who can get some stuff done.”

Large swaths of the state report that they remain undecided days before voting, and the field remains wide open in a race for what appears to be second place.