STRATHAM, N.H. — US Senator Marco Rubio’s final pitch to Iowa voters was about his faith in God. His final pitch in New Hampshire is about his faith he can win the general election.
Riding momentum from his better-than-expected third-place finish in Iowa, Rubio has sharpened his focus on electability as he speaks to growing crowds from Manchester to the Lakes Region, Claremont to the Seacoast. The message to primary voters is succinct: He represents Republicans’ best shot to retake the White House.
“I am the conservative that can win,’’ the Floridian told voters Thursday in Portsmouth. “And if we win, we can turn this country around.’’
Rubio has long maintained he is best positioned to unite the Republican Party and defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. But since Iowa, the Republican field has narrowed and increasingly looks like a three-man contest.
A WMUR/CNN New Hampshire poll released Thursday showed New York businessman Donald Trump holding steady at 29 percent and Rubio surging into second with 18 percent. US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas clung to third with 13 percent, followed by Governor John Kasich of Ohio (12 percent) and former governor Jeb Bush of Florida (10 percent).
On the stump, Rubio tries to convince voters he can serve as both an antidote to Trump’s antics and the bridge to unite a party divided by polarizing figures such as Cruz. His campaign believes electability will resonate.
“Rubio is the best positioned to beat the Democrats,’’ Rubio senior adviser Jim Merrill said. “It is a message that you are going to hear us stress a lot.’’
The strategy carries risk at a time when voters in both parties are animated by anger with the establishment. Historically, the electability argument has triumphed in New Hampshire GOP primaries, with Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Mitt Romney scoring crucial victories en route to the Republican nomination. This is anything but an ordinary election year, particularly for the GOP.
A Pew Research Center poll in July found that Republicans’ perception of their party had soured, dropping 18 percentage points since January. Independents also viewed the GOP less favorably than six months prior.
Trump’s standing has eroded in some polls since his second-place showing in Iowa. As the New Hampshire primary nears, Republican voters such as Rick Bender are increasingly thinking about which candidate can win in November.
“When I look down the ballot, electability will be on my mind, absolutely,’’ said Bender, a 67-year-old from Kingston, who listened to Rubio on Thursday in Stratham.
More than any other candidate, Rubio hews closely to a script, repeating the same platitudes (“This election is a referendum on our identity’’); the same heartwarming biographical notes (“My parents lived to see all four of their children live a better life than their own’’); and the same jokes (“I’m from Florida, and you may not know this, but there are a lot of people there on Social Security and Medicare’’).
The consistency of the senator’s stump speech makes even subtle shifts stand out. In Iowa, where conservative Christians hold significant sway in Republican caucuses, Rubio emphasized his faith. One of the campaign’s closing television advertisements appealed directly to evangelical voters with the opening line, “Our goal is eternity, the ability to live alongside our creator and for all time.’’
The advertisement never aired in New Hampshire, which is the second-least religious state in the country, according to the Gallup poll. Only a few religious references have been sprinkled in Rubio’s recent stump speeches. On Thursday, the campaign highlighted a new video titled “The Conservative Who Can Win.’’
This week, a 55-year-old chemist named Van Mosher clutched a Rubio placard as he waited just after dawn with 200 other voters in a basketball field house in Bow. The father of four daughters had two yard signs leaning against a chair, and a Rubio sticker fastened to his chest.
“He has the ability to unite the two wings of the Republican Party,’’ said Mosher, who had been considering Cruz before settling on Rubio. “I am part of the Tea Party, but I work well with the establishment part of the party.’’
On stage, Rubio worked through his regular recitation of President Obama’s transgressions: “unconstitutional’’ executive orders, “crazy’’ environmental regulations, “ridiculous’’ nuclear weapons deal with Iran, and the systematic weakening of America’s military might. Obama wants to fundamentally change America, Rubio said, because the president views the United States as an arrogant global power needing to be cut down to size.
America’s decline will continue, Rubio warned, under Clinton or her challenger for the Democratic nomination, US Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
“I give us the best chance to win and if you don’t believe me, ask a Democrat,’’ Rubio said. “Of all the Republicans in the race, they know that if I’m our nominee, they lose.’’
Andrew Ryan can be reached at acryan@globe.com.
