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URBANDALE, Iowa — Financial adviser Wayne Van Heuvelen hasn’t missed an Iowa caucus in 36 years. The registered Republican was there to see George H.W. Bush squeak by Ronald Reagan in 1980 and Steve Forbes run a close second to George W. Bush in 2000.

This year, Van Heuvelen said, he plans to back Marco Rubio, the Florida senator and mainstream Republican who might well offer his party’s last, best hope for a candidate outside the oddball fringe.

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“I could tick off the policy reasons why,” Van Heuvelen said at a Rubio rally Saturday night in Urbandale, Iowa, a suburb of Des Moines. He cited abortion, immigration and national security. “But at some point your brain has to cross paths with pragmatism.”

Rubio, Van Heuvelen believes, has a better chance of getting elected and getting things done than do either of the Republican frontrunners.

“Ted Cruz is bit strident. He’s a bit rigid,” he said. “As much as you can stand on principle, you can die on principle.”