Update: To Marco Rubio's chagrin, it looks like the polls were right in Florida. With 72 percent reporting, Trump has won the Sunshine State soundly. He is currently up 45.5 percent to Rubio’s 27.6 percent, according to Fox News.
Marco Rubio had never lost an election in Florida. Until tonight.
— Matt Viser (@mviser) March 16, 2016
Following the result, Rubio congratulated Trump on his big win. His supporters booed when Rubio mentioned the businessman's name, but the Florida senator insisted he deserved it.
“We live in a republic and our voters make this decision,” he said.
Rubio did, however, take a dig at Trump's supporters. When a protester interrupted Rubio's speech, he responded, “Don’t worry - he won’t get beat up at our event.”
Later in his speech, Rubio admitted he and his team may be on the right side, but this year they're not on the winning side. As predicted, he has suspended his campaign.
Update II: With 90 percent reporting, Hillary Clinton has won Florida. She has just about doubled Sanders' votes. No upsets tonight, it seems.
Original Post
Florida is a winner-take-all state, meaning Marco Rubio is going to do everything he can to prove that those polls that have Trump up by 20 points are wrong. Some pundits predict that if the controversial frontrunner wins both Florida and Ohio, the race is essentially over. Rubio may not want to look at this FiveThirtyEight prediction, which gives Trump a 96 percent chance of winning Florida and taking all 99 delegates.
The swing state is just as important for the Democrats, where 214 delegates are up for the taking.
Clinton has a pretty comfortable lead in the Sunshine State, (RealClearPolitics has her up by 30 points) but if it’s anything like Michigan, where Sanders pulled off a major upset, the Clinton camp will have to do some serious damage control. Sanders has drawn in thousands of people to his rallies across Florida, so it’s not impossible.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member