Rubio: Establishment has tried to ‘undermine’ me

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said on Thursday night that the GOP establishment has harassed him at every stage of his political career, digging in on his claim to be a party outsider.

Rubio argued in Davenport, Iowa, that he had seen meddling from the Republican elites in both his 2010 Senate campaign and his current 2016 presidential bid.

“Four years ago, for the United State Senate, the establishment was actively trying to undermine my candidacy,” Rubio told listeners, according to National Journal.

{mosads}“The truth of the matter is, when I decided to run for the presidency, all the same people that told me not to run for the Senate came out of the woodwork again and said, ‘It’s not your turn; you haven’t been around long enough; we’re all going to line up behind somebody else,’” he said.

“And that’s fine,” the Florida lawmaker said. “That’s OK.”

Rubio defied expectations in 2010 by defeating Gov. Charlie Crist in the race for Florida’s open Senate seat that year.

Crist struggled with rallying conservative voters, eventually leaving the GOP and unsuccessfully challenging Rubio as an independent instead.

Rubio’s criticism of the establishment comes as political neophytes are resonating with Republican voters on the 2016 campaign trail.

Business tycoon Donald Trump, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina are the top three candidates for next year’s GOP presidential nomination across multiple national polls.

Trump leads the pack with 24 percent compared to Carson’s 16.3 percent, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of samplings.

Fiorina, meanwhile, receives 11.8 percent following her strong performance in last week’s second televised GOP presidential debate.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush edges out Rubio for the fourth-place slot with 9.8 percent among national surveys.

Rubio, Bush’s former protégé in Florida, takes fifth place out of 15 total candidates, with 9.3 percent voter support of his own.