--- title: Iowa Caucus Results: Marco Rubio Declares Establishment Win description: Marco Rubio's campaign quickly moved to capitalize on his strong finish in the Iowa caucuses Monday night canonical: https://time.com/4203726/iowa-caucus-results-marco-rubio-donald-trump-ted-cruz/ author: Dan Hirschhorn article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-02T04:26:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T19:19:44.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Rubio Camp to Establishment Rivals: It's Over og:description: “It’s now a three-person race" og:url: https://time.com/4203726/iowa-caucus-results-marco-rubio-donald-trump-ted-cruz/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6fb63453cd065fdc/69887bb20a4a2200379c82db/marco-rubio-natalie-keyssar-iowa-feb-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3600 og:image:height: 2025 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL Marco Rubio og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rubio Camp to Establishment Rivals: It's Over twitter:description: “It’s now a three-person race" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6fb63453cd065fdc/69887bb20a4a2200379c82db/marco-rubio-natalie-keyssar-iowa-feb-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Rubio Camp to Establishment Rivals: It's Over > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Dan Hirschhorn](https://time.com/author/dan-hirschhorn/) and [Zeke J Miller / Des Moines](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) Updated: Dec 13, 2023 7:19 PM UTCPublished: Feb 2, 2016 4:26 AM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio appears at a caucus event with his family on Feb. 1, 2016, in Clive, Iowa. Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio appears at a caucus event with his family on Feb. 1, 2016, in Clive, Iowa.Natalie Keyssar for TIME by [Dan Hirschhorn](https://time.com/author/dan-hirschhorn/) and [Zeke J Miller / Des Moines](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) Updated: Dec 13, 2023 7:19 PM UTCPublished: Feb 2, 2016 4:26 AM UTC Marco Rubio’s campaign quickly moved to capitalize on his strong finish in [the Iowa caucuses](http://time.com/4203203/iowa-caucus-results-2016-donald-trump-ted-cruz-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders/) Monday night, wasting no time in sending a message to his Establishment-friendly rivals that the Florida Senator is the only candidate who can stop Ted Cruz or Donald Trump. “It’s now a three-person race,” Rubio campaign spokesman Alex Conant told TIME. “One of these three people will be the nominee. If other campaigns don’t want to accept it, that’s fine, but it’s a three-person race.” Rubio’s third-place finish with 99% of precincts reporting was in line with expectations the campaign had set in terms of pole position. But in finishing just 1 point behind Trump and not far behind first-place Cruz, Rubio emerged as a winner in Iowa, where [the caucuses](http://time.com/4198842/iowa-caucuses-answers/) have long been almost as much about beating expectations as they have about winning outright. And it was easy to interpret Conant’s comment as a missile directed toward Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and John Kasich — other Establishment-favored candidates who will find themselves under growing pressure to exit the race if they don’t perform well in the New Hampshire primary next week. Addressing enthusiastic supporters in Des Moines, Rubio gave what amounted to a victory speech. “So this is the moment they said would never happen,” Rubio said. “The people of this state have sent a clear message. After seven years of Barack Obama, we aren’t waiting any longer.” Rubio used the speech, broadcast live nationwide, to make a clear argument that he is the most electable Republican. “When I am our nominee, we will unite our party, we will grow our party, and we will defeat Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders,” he said. Aides predicted a sharp uptick in fundraising and support to Rubio, pointing to Monday evening’s news that [South Carolina Senator Tim Scott will officially endorse him Tuesday](http://time.com/4203605/iowa-caucus-marco-rubio-tim-scott-south-carolina/?xid=homepage), as well as conversations with donors to other campaigns who they said are preparing to jump to the Florida Senator’s effort. Colorado Senator Cory Gardner, a Rubio endorser, told TIME that “there may have already been some phone calls” from him to colleagues in Congress encouraging them to back Rubio. And Gardner called on the Establishment candidates in the GOP field to clear out, saying Rubio’s third-place finish “certainly presents a great opportunity to consolidate.” As returns trickled in throughout the night, Rubio campaign officials expressed glee at his numbers. “Damn good night for [@TeamMarco](https://twitter.com/TeamMarco)!” Rubio campaign manager Terry Sullivan said on Twitter. “And it looks like its gonna keep getting better based on the precincts still to come.” “We blew past all our vote goals an hour ago,” top strategist Todd Harris said on Twitter. “Feeling very good. We are still climbing. #teammarco #rubiowa.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4203726/iowa-caucus-results-marco-rubio-donald-trump-ted-cruz/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4203726/iowa-caucus-results-marco-rubio-donald-trump-ted-cruz/"},"headline":"Rubio Camp to Establishment Rivals: It's Over","datePublished":"2016-02-02T04:26:07.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T19:19:44.000Z","description":"“It’s now a three-person race\"","url":"https://time.com/4203726/iowa-caucus-results-marco-rubio-donald-trump-ted-cruz/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6fb63453cd065fdc/69887bb20a4a2200379c82db/marco-rubio-natalie-keyssar-iowa-feb-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Hirschhorn","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/dan-hirschhorn/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke J Miller / Des Moines"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6fb63453cd065fdc/69887bb20a4a2200379c82db/marco-rubio-natalie-keyssar-iowa-feb-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL Marco Rubio","caption":"Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio appears at a caucus event with his family on Feb. 1, 2016, in Clive, Iowa.","creditText":"Natalie Keyssar for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4203726/iowa-caucus-results-marco-rubio-donald-trump-ted-cruz/","name":"Rubio Camp to Establishment Rivals: It's Over"}}]}] ```