What went wrong with Rubio

[Leinad]

Rubio was kinda trying to appeal to the voters who kinda wanted a "True Principled Conservative" but also kinda wanted a "Sane Electable Moderate." The problem--and this is also part of why Kamala Harris isn't taking off--very few voters want both, the vast majority of them want one or the other, so there isn't really a "middle lane."

The odd thing about the 2016 race was that Trump was basically a separate faction altogether. This could've been great for Rubio if he had more support than Cruz or Kasich, as he could've consolidated the anti-Trump vote better than probably either of them. But since both of them were doing better or at least as good neither the Cruz or Kasich supporters saw the need to support a candidate they liked less who wasn't even doing better in the polls. (And they definitely weren't going to support the other because they basically have different ideologies and honestly Trump's probably closer to either Cruz or Kasich than they are to each other.)

Rubio (or in alternate timelines Scott Walker or Paul Ryan) could've filled the "not as crazy as Cruz but not as moderate as Kasich" lane and arguably could've beat Trump, but all 3 of them (including Ryan, who of course didn't run) turned out to be terribly overrated and uninspiring politicians.