Leading up to the Republican presidential debate, Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel sponsored a rally Wednesday in Cleveland for candidate U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. Mandel’s support for the son of Cuban immigrants has sparked some controversy.
Mandel angered fellow Ohio Republicans last May when he endorsed Rubio as Gov. John Kasich was weighing his presidential bid. During the packed rally at the Town Hall bar in Cleveland, Mandel said Rubio first impressed him during a speech last year an Ohio hotel.
“Been to a lot of these speeches in ballrooms and seen different people, politicians and CEOs and others. I’ve never seen it before where folks working in a hotel filed into the back of the room to see someone speak," he said. "And stood there behind the podium talking about when he was growing up his used to be a bartender working in the back of the room.”
Rubio then talked to the packed crowd of about 400, which included many Latinos, about cutting corporate taxes and regulations, making college more affordable, saving Social Security and Medicare, and strengthening the military. He is in Cleveland for Thursday's Republican presidential debate which includes Gov. Kasich.
