Jeb Bush may be prepping for his June 15 presidential announcement, but some of his supporters may be resigning the frontrunner status to Sen. Marco Rubio.
On Tuesday’s “With All Due Respect,” Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin remarked that some Bush supporters and “a lot” of unaligned supporters now believe that Rubio is “the man to beat” amongst the GOP for 2016.
Halperin made the comment after Bush teased his presidential announcement, which is set to take place at Miami Dade College two days after Hillary Clinton makes her formal campaign announcement in New York. The Bloomberg host told co-host John Heilemann that Bush’s strategy to give the speech after Clinton could be “a fantastic idea” if executed properly.
“If he pulls this off, if he gives a great speech, if he is the Jeb Bush his supporters think he can be, I think it’s a fantastic idea for him. If she gives a great speech, and he comes out and doesn’t, he’s in a bad place. Look, he’s doing this announcement in Florida,” Halperin said. “Right now, there is a lot of buzz out there, even amongst some of his supporters and a lot of unaligned people, that Rubio is now the man to beat and the Floridian to beat.”
“This is Jeb Bush’s opportunity to go head-to-head to Hillary Clinton as Rubio did,” Halperin added. “If he succeeds, great for him. If he fails, problem.”
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