By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
On Saturday, February 27, US Senator Marco Rubio brought his presidential campaign to Huntsville for a get out the vote rally ahead of Tuesday’s Alabama Republican Primary.
Speaking in front of the space shuttle at NASA’s Space and Rocket Center, Senator Rubio said, “Thank you guys. I am so honored to be with you today. This setting is fantastic. America will be sending people into space whether it is Mars or an asteroid. Great nations do great things.”
Senator Rubio said, “We have a very important election here today. I am here to earn your vote today.” The stakes could not be higher. “Thirty years ago Ronald Reagan defined conservatism for a generation. Now it is time to do it again.”
Rubio said that in Thursday’s debate. “I had to get a little medieval on Donald Trump.” “He is pulling a con game on America and the Republican Party.” Rubio said that he asked Trump why is he making ties and shirts in China and Mexico. Why has he taken advantage of every break and loophole in the tax code. “He is preying on people today who are vulnerable.”
Rubio said that Trump is making all these promises that do not reflect his reality. He took four companies into bankruptcy. “If he (Donald Trump) had taken all the money he inherited and put it in the stock market he would have more money than Warren Buffet.” Rubio said that Trump tweeted a picture of Rubio getting some makeup during a break in the debate, “Here is a guy with the worst spray tan in the country criticizing me for getting a little make up.”
Senator Rubio warned that Trump is not a conservative and is not right for this country. We have a chance to do something great but if we nominate someone who can’t win we will lose to Hillary Clinton or, “God forbid, Bernie Sanders.” “They know if you nominate me we will win.”
Sen. Rubio said, “Bernie Sanders is a socialist. Usually when you say that a candidate denies it, Bernie Sanders puts it in his commercials.”
Rubio said that he will take the message of conservatism and capitalism to young Americans. I am the only Republican with a plan to deal with student loan debt. If elected, “You will have a President who follows the Constitution.” I will honor and respect your First Amendment right to live your faith, your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms and your Tenth Amendment rights. I will repeal every one of Barack Obama’s unconstitutional executive orders. “We are going to replace Justice Scalia with someone as close as possible to Justice Scalia, God bless his soul.” Rubio promised to, “Repeal ad replace Obamacare once and for all. “The world is a more dangerous place than it was seven years ago.”
Senator Rubio blasted President Obama for downsizing our armed forces and promised a Reagan style rebuilding of the armed forces, “And that includes our space program.” “My Grandfather was born in 1899. When he was born there wasn’t any airplanes in the sky. In 1969 he watched a man walk on the moon and said ‘God these Americans can do anything.’”
Rubio promised to fight a real war on terror and vowed that when we catch terrorists alive they are going to Guantanamo. “We are going to be on Israel’s side.” On my first day in office I will cancel Barack Obama’s deal with Iran.
Sen. Rubio said, “We are not taking care of our veterans.” Rubio said that his brother was a Green Beret who served from 1968 to 1971 and he has experienced the problem with the VA through his brother’s struggles with the VA. Rubio said, “Calls to the VA’s suicide hot line went to voice mail.” In a Rubio presidency veterans will be able to go to any doctor they want to for their care. In every fire station in America you will see a veteran. In every police station you will see a veteran.
Sen. Rubio said, “This election is more than a choice between candidates it is a choice about what kind of nation we are going to have.” Both of my parents were born to poor parents in Cuba. My parents got married and came here in 1956 speaking no English. I didn’t start with a $million dollar loan from my Father. “I had to borrow money from Sallie Mae. Whoever that is I paid her an awful lot of money.” “If we ever lose the American dream, then we stop being a special country.” Every country has rich people but America is a special country because of what the people who came before us did. For 200 years each generation left their kids better off than they were. It is now time for this generation to step up;
Sen. Rubio urged his supporters to talk to their friends who are supporting Trump and convince them to change their minds because, “Friends do not let friends vote for a con artist.”
State Representative Will Ainsworth (R-Guntersville) said, Rubio has surged in the polls and it is now a two person race between Rubio and Donald Trump. He is the fourth most conservative US Senator in the country. “We do not need a New York liberal who thinks Hillary Clinton is a good Secretary of State.”
Rep. Ainsworth said in a statement, ““Donald Trump is a con artist, not a conservative. His ridiculous act has gone far enough and we have to put a stop to it now. Republicans across Alabama need to unify behind Marco Rubio since he has proven that he is the one conservative that can defeat the Democrats and preserve the party of Reagan moving forward.”
The Alabama Presidential Primary is Tuesday, March 1. Alabama does not have party registration so any registered voter can vote in whichever major party primary they choose on that day, without pledging loyalty to that party in the general election.
Polls open at 7:00 a.m. and close at 7:00 p.m. Alabama law requires that every voter present a valid photo ID at the polls in order to vote.
Forms of photo ID accepted at the polls are any of the following valid documents: driver’s license; Alabama photo voter ID card; state issued ID (any state); federal issued ID; US passport; employee ID from Federal Government, State of Alabama, County, Municipality, Board, or other entity of this state; student or employee ID from a public or private college or university in the State of Alabama (including postgraduate technical or professional schools); Military ID; or Tribal ID.
