and evan axelbank is at the fairgrounds. and aaron mesmer attended the rally. >> reporter: the rally was all about who is going to win here. hillary clinton has a lead over bernie sanders in florida. she hopes to keep it that way by focusing on topics that could hit home for people in tampa bay. >> let's give it up for the next president of the united states, secretary hillary clinton! >> reporter: a welcome back to tampa. >> mostly i want to thank all of you. >> that's been 8 years in the making for hillary clinton. >> but i cannot be happier to be back in this extraordinary city, the county, this part of florida. the rally is the first visit here since 2008. job creation. >> most of the jobs come from small businesses and the fastest growing small businesses are headed by minority. >> the front runner touched on topics close to home here like line. right here in tampa. if i'm your president we will make investments go back and look at high speed rail, from there clinton took an approach promising to defend the afortable ca

bernie sanders was at the state fair grounds trying to score another upset, and our evan axelbank is life out there. >> he made no bones about predicting another win. he says that momentum is building and insteed there were 9,000 people here to see the man who says he is leading a revolution in american politics. here is bernie sanders on stage at the expo center at the state fair grounds and of course he hammered on all of his usual politics and student loans, immigration and in michigan he won there, and he says it's repeating itself in florida. he acknowledged the large poll deficit as he had in michigan and that he is going up against a sizable clinton machine but he says a large-turn-out will deliver the state for him. clinton tried to sharpen her economic message about the port of tampa and the i-4 corridor to cite a couple of examples but first here is bernie. >> the reason there is so much momentum for this campaign is that we are doing something pretty radical in american politics; we are telling the truth. >> one of the reasons i wanted to come to familiar today was to talk

but fox 13's evan axelbank explains why *every candidate is rushing to 3 nats of cheeringmake no mistake...nats 003821-25"march 15th in florida is where we put the final nail in the coffin."...the next two weeks...sot 002622-24"florida is going to decide who the nominees are."...will feel like the future of the country depends on it.sot 003151-57"we are claiming it. we are claiming it. i declare and decree that she is going to win florida."the clinton campaign opened its tampa office, while the rubio campaign will open theirs in brandon thursday. while clinton performed well on super tuesday and sees florida as the end of bernie sanders, native-son rubio sees florida as the beginning of a comeback against donald trump and ted cruz, as he told our craig patrick this morning.sot 000709-20"i am going to support the republican nominee because it is not going be donald trump, it is going to be me. it is going to be a hard fight. florida is going to be key, i think if we win florida, we will be very difficult to we have to win here, and we are going to work really hard to do it."the hard work

. >> evan axelbank, thank you for that. and now ben sar this may be the end of his campaign. he says he sees no path forward to for him. he tanked on super tuesday and says he will not attend tomorrow night's gop debate in michigan. it's not immediately clear if he is dropping out but he says he will no longer actively seek votes. >> new at 11:00, polk county detectives are keeping their eyes open for some stolen big rigs like that one right there. thieves cut through the fence of central construction and took two semis with two low-boy trailer oos trailers attached. the owners say they even gassed up the rigs using a fuel pump on the property before they took off. accused of running a drug house here fourth street and 62nd. >> and the rays are poised to make history as they travel to cuba on march 22 to play a baseball game in havana. the impact of this game is likely to impact both countries. >> this is being viewed as another step in rebuilding the relationship with cuba. the rays will be the first mlb franchise to play there since the or orioles did in 1999. a history bet

fox 13's evan axelbank is out there. what will he do to make up all this ground? >> cynthia, it's often said the first step in solving a problem is admitting that you have a problem. acknowledged that he is at this point an underdog here in florida. but tonight he brought an optimistic message to the tampa convention center. and he left out any personal attacks that we have seen in take a look. this here is marco rubio here this evening at the tampa convention center. and rubio argued that conservatives need to not portray anger or fear. rather he says he can make up a current eight point deficit in one florida poll against trump by using momentum from a win in puerto rico. he admits that he flung his own personal attacks at trump several weeks ago but only because someone had to stand up to trump who he called a bully. just two weeks ago polls showed that rubio's deficit was much larger down by as much as 20 points to donald trump. >> we have to do it now. a turning point is coming. a turning point awaits in this and it begins here in florida. i am asking florida

evan axelbank live at the airport. this had to be scary for those living nearby for sure. >> and mark, neighbors came out when they heard the noise and the news that they would find outside would not be good. take a look at the wreckage. the investigation shas slowed down. it is pouring over the information to figure out what happened here, two people were found dead. the plane is registered to a non-profit. they cannot rule out another plane is involved. they are being quiet about that. the faa is on the scene trying to get a handle on what happened, what caused this. all we know the plane crashed during takeoff. >> it was obvious that the plane was totally engulfed in flames and you know it was obvious that there was probably nobody. no movement in it. we heard pops, pop, pop, pop. >> obviously very frightening the cessna twin-engine seats six and registered to niner x-ray in south tampa. a woman at the home said her husband was not involved in the crash but that he was at at the airport cooperating with the authorit

evan axelbank has more from ybor city. >> reporter: and one resident is glad to see the president stirring the pot. >> him going to cuba gives us hope. >> reporter: he owns a cigar shop. in the 1990s he was a teen who, along with his family, south refuge in the united states. >> they were not okay with the communist system. >> he sees the visit as an attempt to chip away at a system decades of american embargos. >> it has not worked. the only people that have family. >> on paper, the similarities between he and another are striking, we came here when i was 15 years old. i had nothing. the clothes on my back. >> they were about the same age when they fled. they are. >> and he take as harder line he sees cuban police arresting dissenters and leaving people in the dust while the government honchos live large. the president's visit is a muted endorsement. >> it is legislateit mys the system. >> they acknowledge change will be gradual and hope that the president's visit signal as new day more than anything else. >> we hope for the best, you feel that you will die, you are leader of the free wor

and evan axelbank is there. >> mark, this is obviously a very large crowd as you saw from the pictures it is loud when i put my hand in my here here. and a very loud and large and optimistic rally here. this is what it looks like. there are several thousand people who have pack in the here. they have filled 2/3 of the very large expo hall. the supporters are feeling optimistic because of the win that bernie sanders had in michigan and they are hoping for a repeat. supporters know that he trails clinton in the polls. but the so-called start said the and florida has the circumstances and hispanic voters and they have supported the clintons for years. but the sanders people feel they have momentum and issues on their side. i heard a lot about the push for higher education and the desire to get out of politics n short the supporters say that sanders is about to shock the world. >> he has strong core values. if you believe in that and you have been to stand behind. >> that gives us hope that we can fight this. >> you know the goal here for the sanders campaign here is to built. they did tha

evan axelbank live at the airport. this had to be scary for those living nearby for sure. >> and mark, neighbors came out when they heard the noise and the news that they would find outside would not be good. take a look at the wreckage. the investigation shas slowed down. it is pouring over the information to figure out what happened here, two people were found dead.

evan axelbank, fox 13 news. >>> bernie sanders said he is feeling good about today's primaries, he hopes to build on his lead in michigan. he has been hammering clinton on her support for trade deals like killer in the u.s. >> and craig patrick shows us florida. >> we'll start with the democrats if bernie sanders loses florida, and he will, he can make away with a good amount of delegates because unlike the republican races the democratic race, the delegates are awarded on a proportional basis. you have a 15% threshold. 214 in play. bernie sanders does best among the younger voters. the good news for hillary clinton, florida suits her profile better at this point. are you looking at more than 860,000 votes cast before today and less than 10% of those were under the age of 35. and based on what we have seen in other states, that sets up nicely for hillary clinton. i think that if sanders is to make a move he needs to win in urban areas from miami to tampa bay because, again, delegates are awarded based on districts how they will be awarded until probably the end of this week. >> let's go

evan axelbank in our news room, and they are trained to keep their distance but at the same time they have to be so close, and so i'm sure it's very emotional for many of them. >> i'm glad he spoke out because it gives us a side of her we may not hear or see or a validation of that. thank you for speaking out, and it is a beautiful night. >> especially in planted city, it was awesome. >> what, about 20,000 fans cheering you on? >> they were your fans out there. >> always appreciate the support, very nice of you and it was a beautiful day. take a look, the facebook pictures are off the charts. this is high clouds coming in at the wind was up, certainly a breezy day, and tony turk tonight, nice job, tony, love that, and our good buddy ed posting basically morning, noon and night. a nice job, ed, love that over in clearwater, and then crystal beach, this is over by palm harbor looking off to the west and the gandy bridge late today, some of these high clouds are kind of blow-off clouds from the big storms occurring in the western gulf, and we will show you that on skytower in a moment. t

p>> fox 13 evan axelbank with pclinton campaign as he was there plast night at numbers started prolling in. pevan i'm certain that her psupporters are feeling a little pmore confident today. p>> yeah i'm gar back trudge or pjust went by can you repeat the pquestion? p>> i was saying, that's okay. pevan. pi was saying that i'm sure that pthe clinton supporter and phillary feel a little bit better pabout things this morning then pthey were maybe going into today p>> no doubt about it, russell. pyou know, last week it's easy to pforget, but last week bernie psanders had a big victory. phe won in michigan. pand that took the momentum away pfrom hillary clinton. premember she had leading in olls in michigan. pand all the polls were wrong. pbernie sanders won there. pand last night there were some pnational reporters who said that pthey would only win two states. pwell it turns out she won all pfive states. pshe won very diverse states, pvery different states. pshe won in the south. pshe won in midwest. pso right now the clinton pcampaign is feeling very good pabout the way things are going.

pand fox 13's evan axelbank is pthere now live. pech, what can we expect? p>> yeah this is going to be a plittle bit of a different kind pof rally that we normally see pfrom donald trump. pyou remember he was at usf pseveral weeks ago or maybe now pseveral months ago. pthere were about 15,000 people pthere inside and outside. pthis is going much smaller about p1,000 people will be here inside pthis room convention center you pcan see in middle of room they phave just a chair, and a little pstand there set up for him. pso it's going to be much pdifferent kind of rally then pwe're used to seeing. pi'm told by traveling reporters pthat this is a format that they pused in new hampshire and iowa. pbut seldom in the states that phave followed that. pso this may be an attempt to pkind soften up image of donald ptrump here to make him kind of pmore of a cross over appeal to pthe rest of the electorate as ptrump continues to pivot here ptowards the general election. pseparate protest is being lanned for noon at site of pfailed trump towery in tampa. pthat protest di

pand fox 13's evan axelbank is pthere now live. pech, what can we expect? p>> yeah this is going to be a plittle bit of a different kind