The Slatest

Marco Rubio Is Getting Smoked, Buried, and Swamped in Florida Polls

“[Pained grunting]” —Marco Rubio

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

A wow a wow a wow. Here’s the latest Republican presidential news out of Florida, which holds its primary next Tuesday:

Donald Trump leads native son Sen. Marco Rubio 45–22 percent among Florida likely Republican primary voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today, with 18 percent for Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and 8 percent for Ohio Gov. John Kasich. 

That’s from Quinnipiac’s press release, which is titled “Trump Buries Rubio 2-1 in Florida GOP Primary.” RealClearPolitics’ overall polling average isn’t much kinder to the soon-to-be-ex-Florida-senator, pegging his support in the state at 24.5 percent to Trump’s 41.3.

Rubio finished a distant fourth in Tuesday’s primaries in Michigan and Mississippi, and CNN reported earlier in the week that some of his advisers are urging him to end his campaign. Meanwhile, ex-candidate Carly Fiorina is in Miami on Wednesday to endorse … Ted Cruz.

Gawker’s suggestion that Rubio drop out of the race to compete on Dancing With the Stars seems about right. You could see Rubio ending up as a kind of TV-guy cross between Michael Strahan and George Stephanopoulos, yeah?* Like a regular guest spot as the one guy on The View, that sort of thing? I mean, he seems nice.

Read more Slate coverage of the GOP primary.

*Correction, March 9, 2016: This post originally misspelled George Stephanopoulos’ last name.