From Jonathan Easely writing at The Hill:

GOP lawmakers and party leaders are rushing to endorse Marco Rubio as the panicked Republican establishment flocks to the man it hopes can stop Donald Trump’s “Terminator”-like march to the presidential nomination.

A crush of lawmakers and party leaders announced on Monday they’d support Rubio for president less than two days after Jeb Bush exited the race.

Rubio’s campaign touted those endorsements, as well as the thousands of supporters he attracted at campaign stops in Arkansas and Tennessee — where voters will cast ballots in the critical Super Tuesday primary on March 1— as evidence Republicans are coalescing behind him as the alternative to Trump.

“He’s the last great hope for moderate conservatives,” said GOP strategist Ryan Williams, a veteran of Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign. “There’s about to be a test of this grand theory that once the mainstream lane consolidates behind a candidate it will be enough to overtake Trump.”