Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is hitting the campaign trail with a new conservative endorser in the House: Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.).
“Marco is a rock solid conservative and a strong leader we can trust,” Gowdy said in a statement today. “I look forward to campaigning in Iowa with him, and introducing my good friend to voters across the state.”
The pair are calling their bus tour “Out With The Old, In With The New,” according to Rubio’s campaign.
Rubio starts the tour Monday in Burlington, and will be joined by Gowdy on Tuesday for town halls in Clinton, Waterloo, and Sioux City.
On Wednesday, the Rubio-Gowdy townhall blitz continues in Pella, Newton and Boone.
After the tour, Rubio will head to Miami for New Year’s but will be in Gowdy’s home state on Saturday to meet with voters.
Gowdy defeated incumbent Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) in the 2010 Tea Party wave, but despite his insurgent ascent to Congress he hasn’t joined the Tea Party Caucus. He’s risen to prominence in the House with his dogged prosecutorial questioning of Obama administration officials during Oversight Committee hearings.
Some conservatives were calling on Gowdy to challenge Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in the race to replace retired Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), but Gowdy quickly refused to jump into the contest.
Boehner appointed Gowdy as chairman of the Select Committee on Benghazi. The committee recently interviewed its 61st witness with the panel’s final report due in a few months.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush still leads the pack of GOP presidential contenders as far as the number of House endorsements.
Rubio’s nearly two dozen other House endorsements include Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Mia Love (R-Utah), and Sean Duffy (R-Wis.). Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has a dozen House endorsements, the most prominent being Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa).
Donald Trump and Cruz are tied at 31 percent in Iowa in the latest Gravis poll, with Rubio at 9 percent.
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