The Rubio campaign is misleading its donors into thinking that Rubio will win Florida:
[Rubio’s campaign manager] cautioned patience as people in the room expressed concern about Mr. Rubio’s ability to win Florida on March 15, stating as fact that the senator would carry his home state [bold mine-DL].
The campaign’s supporters are right to be concerned about this, since there is no evidence that Rubio will be able to win Florida or even come close to doing so. Guaranteeing a win there under the circumstances is no more than a flimsy lie. Trump has maintained a 15 to 20-point lead over Rubio for months. Rubio’s numbers have improved, but then so have Trump’s, so the gap remains the same as it was over the winter. It seems very unlikely that Rubio is going to close the gap in the next two weeks after losing more than a dozen contests between now and then, and it is more likely that Trump’s lead will grow larger as he racks up more wins.
I suppose Rubio’s campaign has to perpetuate the fiction that he can win his home state, because if they don’t it becomes obvious even to his supporters that his candidacy is pointless. Even so, it would make more sense for Rubio to prepare his supporters to accept the reality that he isn’t a viable contender for the nomination and stop wasting their time and money pretending otherwise. Rubio’s poor campaign strategy was never going to work, and not that it has failed it is time for the candidate to acknowledge as much.