Dreary message

Marco Rubio ditches his dreary message

The Florida Republican tries to offer voters a glimmer of sunshine as his 2016 rivals dish gloom and doom.

By Anna Palmer

After weeks of road-testing the gloomy, death-of-the-American-dream message that his rivals are using, Marco Rubio on Monday brought his more positive, inspirational family story back to the center of his Iowa campaign.

And he used Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst's first stop with him on the 2016 campaign trail to drive that message home.

“She did not grow up in privilege. In fact, her parents didn’t make a lot of money,” Rubio said of Ernst, describing how her parents would wrap her single pair of nice shoes in bags when it rained or snowed so that they wouldn’t be ruined. “She said she was never embarrassed by it because when she got on the bus, the other kids had the same thing, and that’s what she grew up in.”

Rubio told voters about how Ernst's story was similar to his family’s immigration experience and the story of his parents' success in rising from poverty to the middle class.

It was a return to his campaign’s original message. He aimed to convince voters Monday that America needs a new generation of leaders to guide the nation and keep opportunities open to all.

He then pivoted to his parents’ story, striking a far more positive tone than his opponents, whose stump speeches and voter interactions are largely fixated on the perception of a country in decline, economically and militarily.

“We celebrate success in America,” Rubio said before a crowd of a few hundred Iowa voters. “What makes us special is a little girl who grew up with plastic bags [on her] shoes and the son of a bartender and a maid [who] can serve the government at its highest levels.”

And while Rubio’s rivals — in both the conservative and more mainstream lanes of the 2016 contest — are relentlessly attacking one another’s character as well as their policy positions, Rubio didn’t reference a single Republican opponent on Monday. He reserved his criticism for President Barack Obama and Democratic policies.

When he launched his campaign, Rubio urged voters to choose new leaders, not simply new members of America’s most famous political families. His campaign is now, once again, highlighting support he has received from lawmakers of his generation, including Sens. Cory Gardner of Colorado and Kristi Noem of South Dakota and South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy.

“I’ve made it very clear that the party needs to turn the page, that we can’t keep electing the same people,” Rubio told reporters after the event.

Supporters said they appreciated the more positive tone, contrasting it with what other candidates are dishing on the stump — particularly the two Iowa front-runners, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

“That’s a message that historically has been a winning one for Republicans, and I think it’s smart for Sen. Rubio to be stressing that message at a time when the two front-runners in the race are blowing each other to bits,” said Matt Strawn, former chairman of the Iowa Republican Party. “It’s not only good politics, but it’s probably what we need to hear for the country.”