(photo by Sarah Beckman)
Despite at times heavy downpours and cooler temperatures, dozens of voters turned out to hear Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio have his turn on the Des Moines Register’s soapbox on Tuesday morning. Rubio began his campaign speech by thanking the crowd for coming out with umbrellas to hear him, and he promised he would make his speech short. Rubio went straight to his stump speech remarks on building a new American Dream.
“The jobs that once sustained our middle class have been replaced by machines or they don’t pay what they once did,” said Rubio. “And the result is that millions of people feel locked out from the promise of the American Dream. But here’s the good news: there’s no reason we can’t fix this.”
Rubio has been hitting hard on his education reform policies, including reforming higher education.
“We cannot continue to be stuck with a 20th century higher education system that tells everyone you either get a four-year degree or you get nothing at all,” said Rubio. “We need more welders, more airport mechanics…these are good paying jobs. A welder makes more than a political science major, and you borrow a lot less money and go to work a lot sooner. And we should be graduating people from high school who know how to do these things.”
Rubio also commented on fellow contender Donald Trump’s recently-released immigration policy to ship back the more than 11 million illegal immigrants living in America today.
“I’m open to doing things that prevent people who are deliberately coming to the U.S. for purposes of taking advantage of the 14th Amendment, but I’m not in favor of repealing it,” said Rubio. “I haven’t read his plan. I’ve only read press accounts…Obviously there are some ideas that have merit, but the majority of it is really not a workable plan that could ever pass Congress.”
Rubio toured the fair shortly after his shortened soapbox speech, and has several events throughout the metro later today, including a visit at the Dallas County GOP annual steak fry in Van Meter.
