2016 Shocker: Rubio Urges Ohio Supporters to Vote for Kasich (Video)

“If you are a Republican primary voter in Ohio and you want to defeat Donald Trump, your best chance in Ohio is John Kasich,” Rubio’s spokesperson says

Marco Rubio campaign spokesman Alex Conant urged supporters in Ohio to vote for Gov. John Kasich in that state’s primary on Tuesday, in a last-ditch effort to stop Donald Trump from securing the Republican nomination for president.

“I’m just stating the obvious,” Conant told CNN. “If you are a Republican primary voter in Ohio and you want to defeat Donald Trump, your best chance in Ohio is John Kasich.”

Conant noted that the strategic anti-Trump choice for Florida voters was its home-state senator. “The same is true here in Florida, where if you want to beat Donald Trump here in Florida, where there’s 99 delegates at stake, you need to vote for Marco Rubio because he’s the only one with a mathematical shot,” he said.

Florida and Ohio are both winner-take-all states that vote on March 15. Both Rubio and Kasich need to win in their home states to continue in the race. But they also to keep Trump from securing all of Florida’s 99 delegates and Ohio’s 66 delegates to prevent him from inching closer to the 1,237 delegates that would clinch him the nomination.

You’d think Kasich would be ecstatic about the announcement, but the Ohio governor’s camp responded by lashing back, rejecting the Rubio’s peace offering.

Kasich spokesperson Rob Nichols said that Kasich will win his home state without Rubio’s help, “just as [Rubio]’s going to lose Florida without our help,” the Associated Press reported.

According to recent polls, Trump and Kasich are in a tight race in the Buckeye State, with Trump holding a 2.5 percentage lead in the RealClearPolitics average. But a Fox News survey released this week found Kasich ahead by 5 points.

Watch the video above.

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