Advertisement Marco Rubio campaigns in New Hampshire after strong showing in Iowa Christie calls Rubio, "the boy in the bubble" Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has called the 2016 election a pivotal one that Republicans can't afford to lose.After a strong showing in Iowa, he headed straight to New Hampshire, where he immediately found himself under verbal attack by another candidate.Fresh off his surprisingly strong third-place finish in Iowa, Rubio greeted supporters at a rally in Exeter.During a one-on-one interview with News 9's Shelley Walcott Tuesday, Rubio brushed off the notion his strong caucus showing made him the Republican establishment choice."I am not the establishment candidate. I've had $40 million of establishment money spent attacking me, more than every other candidate combined," said Rubio. "So I got to the U.S. Senate running against the establishment. I've had to run for president against an establishment that thought I needed to wait my turn in line."Rubio found himself squarely in the crosshairs of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who today described Rubio as "the boy in the bubble."Christie accused Rubio of always offering canned and rehearsed answers to questions, a criticism that Rubio shrugged off."I think Chris has had a bad couple of days, and sometimes when people are having a tough time they say things that even they don't mean or later regret. I'm not going to go into it -- that's not what this campaign is about," said Rubio.Circling back to the issues, Rubio said he's keenly aware of the challenges on the minds of New Hampshire voters."People are concerned about our national security. I mean we have this rapid growth of ISIS trying to get killers into the United States. We have to deal with that," said Rubio. "We have an economy that's not creating good paying jobs. An issue you have in New Hampshire that we're facing in Florida is opiate addiction and the deaths of people suffering from overdoses. These are issues that the federal government can play a role in."Rubio said he is the only candidate who can beat Hillary Clinton, should she become the Democratic nominee."If they nominate me, I will beat Hillary Clinton, and the Democrats know that. They don't want to run against me, but I can hardly wait to run against them," said Rubio.Rubio finished just one percentage point behind Donald Trump in the Iowa caucuses.