Marco Rubio has not won a state, a fact that worries allies and pleases skeptics who mock his chances to win the Republican presidential nomination.

It doesn’t even sound as if the Rubio team knows when it will win one.

Can this strategy really work? Could he really lose every state on Super Tuesday and still stand a chance of becoming the nominee?

The delegate math says yes. No, it wouldn’t be optimal for Mr. Rubio to lose all 12 contests on March 1, Super Tuesday. His chances of amassing an outright majority of delegates, and becoming the presumptive nominee before the convention, would be quite low. But he would still have a real chance to take a clear delegate lead over Donald Trump, and win the nomination.

That window closes March 15. On that day a slew of big winner-take-all states will vote. If Mr. Rubio can’t hold his own in those states — Illinois, Ohio, Florida, Missouri and North Carolina — it will become extremely difficult for him to finish the primary season with a lead in pledged delegates. His more realistic strategy then would be to deny Mr. Trump a majority and hope to win at a contested convention.