According to the AP, the Florida senator has sent out letters instructing Republican officials not to cede his 172 delegates to any other presidential candidate.
The unconventional move suggests Rubio wants to play kingmaker at the convention, racing in at the eleventh hour to wrest the nomination from Donald Trump and hand his delegates over to an alternative. He may also be holding out hope that Republicans will nominate him at a brokered convention. National Review’s Jonah Goldberg wrote this morning:
Cruz would be the most likely victor in a floor fight, but that isn’t assured. The longer the balloting goes, the more likely it is that the bitter and bleary-eyed delegates will opt to order off-menu. That’s what Kasich is allegedly counting on. But Kasich is widely disliked, and it might be a good deal easier to find a unifying candidacy in, say, Rick Perry, Scott Walker, Nikki Haley, or Mike Pence.
Or Marco Rubio. Still, the Florida senator isn’t exactly projecting confidence. As Gawker pointed out, he misspelled his own country—the “Untied States”— in the letters sent out to his delegates. He’s made similar missteps before: A Rubio commercial from February featured stock footage from the Canadian skyline.
This prompts the question: Should the Republican Party consider throwing its support behind a candidate who seems be running for president of the Untied States of Canada?