Marco Rubio, 44, from Florida, came in third at Monday's Iowa caucuses with 23 per cent of the vote.
DES MOINES, Iowa/RINDGE, NH:
US Senator Marco Rubio, emerging from the first Republican nominating contest of the 2016 presidential campaign as the party's leading mainstream candidate, faces a strong field of rival establishment figures in next week's New Hampshire primary.
Rubio, 44, from Florida, came in third at Monday's Iowa caucuses with 23 per cent of the vote, making a stronger-than-expected finish and establishing himself as the alternative to front-runners Ted Cruz, 45, and Donald Trump, 69.
Conservative Cruz won the caucuses with 28 per cent, 4 points ahead of businessman Trump, whose campaign has been marked by controversies such as his call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States and a pledge to build a wall along the US-Mexican border to keep out illegal immigrants.
Rubio's campaign attributed his success to an extensive ground game and assembling a broad coalition.
"Over the last month, we made 200,000 voter contacts. In the last four days, we knocked on 10,000 doors," Rubio campaign manager Terry Sullivan wrote in a memo released on Tuesday.
Evangelical Christians helped Cruz, a US senator from Texas, to victory in Iowa, but he might struggle to win on Febuary 9 in New Hampshire where Republican voters have more secular and libertarian streaks.
Cruz told New Hampshire voters he was like former Republican President Ronald Reagan and that if the state voted for him in the primary, it would help ensure his nomination.
"Every day from now until Election Day here in New Hampshire, I'm going to continue asking for the men and women of New Hampshire to make that same fateful decision yet again so that we can reignite the promise of America," Cruz said at an event on Tuesday.
'HARD SELL?'
Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who dropped out of the race in December, said a recent hardening of Rubio's position on immigration and the strength of his anti-abortion stance might cost him.
"Running to the right to win Iowa is going to be a hard sell here in New Hampshire," Graham, a supporter of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, told Reuters in Rindge, New Hampshire.
The son of Cuban immigrants, Rubio said on Tuesday he was the candidate to unite the Republicans in the Nov. 8 general election, when the party hopes to regain the White House after Democratic President Barack Obama's two four-year terms.
"People realized on the Republican side that we cannot afford - this country cannot afford - to lose this election, and that I give the party the best chance not just to unify our party but to grow it," Rubio told ABC's "Good Morning America" from Manchester, New Hampshire.
The fluent Spanish speaker hopes to win back some of the Latino vote the party lost in recent years as it toughened its stance on immigration. A foreign policy hawk, Rubio advocates a tough approach to Iran, the ISIS militant group and other US foes.
Iowans who supported Rubio at the caucuses said they responded to his relatively positive message and viewed him as the candidate most likely to beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, should she be the Democratic nominee.
Worries about issues such as immigration and terrorism have fuelled the campaigns of Trump and Cruz.
"We've seen a campaign that's been characterized by candidates trying to exploit peoples' fears and anxieties and insecurities about the future. And those candidates ended up doing pretty well last night," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Tuesday, speaking of the Republican field.
Concerns about the income gap and economic insecurity have also helped Democratic left-wing candidate Senator Bernie Sanders, 74, who narrowly lost to Clinton, 68, in Iowa.
Sanders' home state is Vermont, next door to New Hampshire, and that may give him an advantage in next Tuesday's primary.
Clinton's razor-thin margin was the smallest in Iowa Democratic caucus history.
Clinton acknowledged she had to try harder to win younger Democrats, who backed Sanders in Iowa in large numbers. "I'm going to have some work to do to reach out to young voters, maybe first-time voters, who have to make a tough decision," she told CNN.
THE ESTABLISHMENT
Moderate Republicans besides Rubio, like Bush, Ohio Governor John Kasich and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, are expected to do better in New Hampshire than they did in Iowa.
Christie on Tuesday accused Cruz and Rubio of lacking executive experience for the job of president.
"What do they do exactly in the United States Senate? They talk and they talk. They are not responsible for doing anything," Christie said at his campaign's New Hampshire headquarters in Bedford.
Opinion polls of Republicans show Trump leading nationally and in New Hampshire. But the state has a long tradition of bucking trends in presidential primaries.
Rubio might have to tweak his message for the state's audience, said Wayne Lesperance, director of the Center for Civic Engagement at New England College in New Hampshire.
"I think he will still emphasise a conservative message but a bit less focussed on faith matters and more focussed on fiscal issues, the border, and gun control. Those are hot-button items this cycle," he said.
Trump, the outspoken real estate magnate who dominated the Republican race for months, broke an unusual silence of more than 12 hours on Twitter after his defeat in Iowa.
"Because I was told I could not do well in Iowa, I spent very little there - a fraction of Cruz & Rubio. Came in a strong second. Great honour," he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday where he has regularly posted scathing criticism of his opponents.
Rubio, 44, from Florida, came in third at Monday's Iowa caucuses with 23 per cent of the vote, making a stronger-than-expected finish and establishing himself as the alternative to front-runners Ted Cruz, 45, and Donald Trump, 69.
Conservative Cruz won the caucuses with 28 per cent, 4 points ahead of businessman Trump, whose campaign has been marked by controversies such as his call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States and a pledge to build a wall along the US-Mexican border to keep out illegal immigrants.
Rubio's campaign attributed his success to an extensive ground game and assembling a broad coalition.
"Over the last month, we made 200,000 voter contacts. In the last four days, we knocked on 10,000 doors," Rubio campaign manager Terry Sullivan wrote in a memo released on Tuesday.
Evangelical Christians helped Cruz, a US senator from Texas, to victory in Iowa, but he might struggle to win on Febuary 9 in New Hampshire where Republican voters have more secular and libertarian streaks.
Cruz told New Hampshire voters he was like former Republican President Ronald Reagan and that if the state voted for him in the primary, it would help ensure his nomination.
"Every day from now until Election Day here in New Hampshire, I'm going to continue asking for the men and women of New Hampshire to make that same fateful decision yet again so that we can reignite the promise of America," Cruz said at an event on Tuesday.
'HARD SELL?'
Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who dropped out of the race in December, said a recent hardening of Rubio's position on immigration and the strength of his anti-abortion stance might cost him.
"Running to the right to win Iowa is going to be a hard sell here in New Hampshire," Graham, a supporter of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, told Reuters in Rindge, New Hampshire.
The son of Cuban immigrants, Rubio said on Tuesday he was the candidate to unite the Republicans in the Nov. 8 general election, when the party hopes to regain the White House after Democratic President Barack Obama's two four-year terms.
"People realized on the Republican side that we cannot afford - this country cannot afford - to lose this election, and that I give the party the best chance not just to unify our party but to grow it," Rubio told ABC's "Good Morning America" from Manchester, New Hampshire.
The fluent Spanish speaker hopes to win back some of the Latino vote the party lost in recent years as it toughened its stance on immigration. A foreign policy hawk, Rubio advocates a tough approach to Iran, the ISIS militant group and other US foes.
Iowans who supported Rubio at the caucuses said they responded to his relatively positive message and viewed him as the candidate most likely to beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, should she be the Democratic nominee.
Worries about issues such as immigration and terrorism have fuelled the campaigns of Trump and Cruz.
"We've seen a campaign that's been characterized by candidates trying to exploit peoples' fears and anxieties and insecurities about the future. And those candidates ended up doing pretty well last night," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Tuesday, speaking of the Republican field.
Concerns about the income gap and economic insecurity have also helped Democratic left-wing candidate Senator Bernie Sanders, 74, who narrowly lost to Clinton, 68, in Iowa.
Sanders' home state is Vermont, next door to New Hampshire, and that may give him an advantage in next Tuesday's primary.
Clinton's razor-thin margin was the smallest in Iowa Democratic caucus history.
Clinton acknowledged she had to try harder to win younger Democrats, who backed Sanders in Iowa in large numbers. "I'm going to have some work to do to reach out to young voters, maybe first-time voters, who have to make a tough decision," she told CNN.
THE ESTABLISHMENT
Moderate Republicans besides Rubio, like Bush, Ohio Governor John Kasich and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, are expected to do better in New Hampshire than they did in Iowa.
Christie on Tuesday accused Cruz and Rubio of lacking executive experience for the job of president.
"What do they do exactly in the United States Senate? They talk and they talk. They are not responsible for doing anything," Christie said at his campaign's New Hampshire headquarters in Bedford.
Opinion polls of Republicans show Trump leading nationally and in New Hampshire. But the state has a long tradition of bucking trends in presidential primaries.
Rubio might have to tweak his message for the state's audience, said Wayne Lesperance, director of the Center for Civic Engagement at New England College in New Hampshire.
"I think he will still emphasise a conservative message but a bit less focussed on faith matters and more focussed on fiscal issues, the border, and gun control. Those are hot-button items this cycle," he said.
Trump, the outspoken real estate magnate who dominated the Republican race for months, broke an unusual silence of more than 12 hours on Twitter after his defeat in Iowa.
"Because I was told I could not do well in Iowa, I spent very little there - a fraction of Cruz & Rubio. Came in a strong second. Great honour," he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday where he has regularly posted scathing criticism of his opponents.
© Thomson Reuters 2016
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