Marco Rubio Drops Out Of 2016 Race

"We should have seen this coming," he began. After a brutal loss to Donald Trump on Super Tuesday 3, Marco Rubio dropped out of the presidential race. Even though he recently said he'd go on to Utah no matter what happened in his home state, the Florida senator gave a sad concession speech, which was at one point interrupted by Trump fans. In his Miami headquarters, he spoke about his campaign and thanked his Florida supporters, and said he'd suspend his campaign because "it is not God's plan that I be president this year, or maybe ever."

Like many of the dropouts from this presidential race, we kinda saw this coming. Rubio was way behind both Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz in the delegate count, having only won Minnesota, Puerto Rico, and Washington D.C. And while this is likely disappointing for many Republicans who don't connect with the more extreme candidates, they can take solace in the fact that Rubio's absence will at least open up the path for Cruz to possibly overtake Trump. It's been difficult for every candidate to gain ground in a Republican field dominated by Trump, but as this race narrows, Cruz could have a better chance at making the game a little harder.

Now that Rubio is out of the race, the 163 delegates he did manage to garner during his time on the campaign trail will move on to the convention uncommitted. As Bustle reported after the first Super Tuesday, uncommitted delegates generally go the way of the most popular candidate, but that might not be the case any longer. Rubio's delegates are enough to make life really hard for Trump (i.e. a contested convention) if they decide to commit entirely to Cruz — or even to Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who won his first primary election with his home state on Super Tuesday 3.

Kasich, one of the relatively moderate voices in the 2016 Republican race, immediately tweeted his support for Rubio, writing, "Make no mistake, @MarcoRubio will continue to be a powerful voice for the future of our Republican party."

The GOP race started with an overcrowded field of candidates champing at the bit to take the country by storm, but now it's down to just three. Although many have assumed that Trump will take the nomination, considering his strong showing during the primary elections, a contested convention is looking more and more likely. By taking the fall and dropping out of the race, Rubio just made this election a hell of a lot more interesting.