Editor’s note: Though it’s still 2015, the 2016 presidential campaign is underway. The field is already crowded, and to help you keep track, we’re compiling this guide to recognizing candidates outside their natural habitats.
The candidates: Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina
Species: Rubio: senator (Rep.); Fiorina: former CEO of Hewlett-Packard (Rep.)
Primary habitats: Rubio: Florida; Fiorina: Virginia
Description: As the field of Republican candidates grows crowded (there are more than a dozen declared candidates so far, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is expected to officially announce his candidacy later this month), voters are witnessing evolutionary adaptation in action. Though campaigns are still in their early stages, many candidates have already learned that the best defense is a good offense.
At a June 25 event in Exeter, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio blasted that week’s Supreme Court rulings that upheld provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and legalized same-sex marriage across the country. According to an Associated Press report, Rubio called the justices who upheld the ACA “activist judges” and said that states, not courts, should have the final say on marriage laws. A week later, Rubio, along with former New York governor and fellow Republican candidate George Pataki, went on the offensive against Donald Trump, who kicked off his campaign by calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists. “Trump’s comments are not just offensive and inaccurate, but also divisive,” Rubio said in a statement, adding that the country’s immigration system is broken and in need of “serious solutions.”
Above and at top: Republican Marco Rubio in Exeter. (photo by Roger H. Goun)
Former CEO Carly Fiorina, however, has made Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton her target. At a campaign event at Turbocam International in Barrington on July 6, Fiorina said that Clinton is “not trustworthy or transparent,” and added that the eventual Republican nominee must “throw every punch possible at Clinton,” according to a Foster’s Daily Democrat report.
Republican Carly Fiorina in Barrington. (photo by Roger H. Goun)
Signs of a more aggressive field were physically apparent at both candidates’ events in recent weeks. At Rubio’s town hall meeting in Exeter, Concerned Veterans for America, the group which hosted the event, handed out stress balls shaped like grenades. At Fiorina’s Barrington stop, attendees could enter a raffle to win an AK-47. Democratic candidates are also striking a more aggressive posture: at a Fourth of July parade in Gorham, Hillary Clinton staffers used a rope line to corral members of the press covering the event.
Candidate sightings alert: After a rush of Fourth of July events, the Seacoast appears to be relatively candidate-free for the next week. The only scheduled stop is an appearance by GOP candidate John Kasich at Turbocam in Barrington. However, candidates are known to swoop into quiet habitats with little notice. Be prepared.