Tampa Rubio campaign gears up for Florida primary

TAMPA (FOX 13) - Marco Rubio opened his Tampa campaign office Thursday.  Rubio needs his home state of Florida to come through if he hopes to become the Republican presidential nominee, having only won Minnesota thus far.

”He has the best stances on foreign policy, his domestic policy is top-notch,” said supporter Robert Winsler.

His supporters are backing Mitt Romney’s message, delivered Thursday ahead of a key debate.

The message: anyone but Trump.

”I don’t want to get myself in trouble with friends, but I applauded it, honestly,” said supporter Martha Edwards.

“I think he feels like most republicans. We don’t want Trump, Trump is not one of us,” said another supporter Scot Laprez.

However, team Trump isn’t backing down.

“His supporters know him, they are 100-percent behind him and he’ll actually pick up more independent votes and more Democrat votes after that, because a lot of people cannot deal with Mitt Romney,” said Lori Pesta, Chair of the Trump Campaign in Cherokee County, GA. 

Donald Trump currently holds a near 20-point lead in the sunshine state, according to the Real Clear Politics poll average.

For Rubio supporters, decision time may be looming; will they or won’t they join team Trump, should he become the nominee?

”There's a very large block, I can tell you, that’s firmly against Trump. We will not go along with Trump,” said Laprez.