Rubio, Jindal make their pitch for potential 2016 run at meeting held by influential Club for Growth

Published December 20, 2015

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio told the anti-tax group Club for Growth on Saturday that the Senate candidates they've backed recently represent the Republican Party's new leadership.

The Florida senator was among a half-dozen presidential prospects who spoke at the group's three-day winter meeting, which ended Saturday at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida.

Among Republican senators attending the meeting were Arkansas' Tom Cotton, Texas' Ted Cruz, Utah's Mike Lee, Alaska's Dan Sullivan and Pennsylvania's Pat Toomey. All received the club's backing in their campaigns.

"You have some of the future leadership in this room tonight," Rubio said. "We have future presidents, future majority leaders, future leaders of our party."

The Club for Growth has become a key player in Republican primaries and is weighing making its first endorsement for president.

At the same meeting on Saturday, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal called congressional Republican leaders "fearful" of acting to fully repeal President Obama's health care law.

Jindal, a second-term Republican governor weighing a 2016 presidential candidacy, said the GOP had failed to act on their signature issue in the 2014 midterm elections. Republicans overtook Democrats in the Senate and broadened their majority in the House.

"It's leadership and other members who, I think, are fearful of being criticized for putting anything out there that could be attacked. If not, why wouldn't we have had a vote by now?" he told reporters at the meeting. "I would hope, though, that we're honest enough to say, we campaigned on getting rid of Obamacare."

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