MASON CITY, Iowa — 2016 Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio hit the road this past weekend, making five stops in Iowa to talk with potential caucusgoers and to spread his campaign’s message.

The stops included Council Bluffs, Sioux City, Mason City, Orange City and Des Moines.

After a strong performance in the Republican debate last week, the senator from Florida has stuck with his campaign’s central theme — attempting to appeal to conservatives with emphasis on his personal story.

“If you’re looking for a good conservative, look to Marco Rubio,” said state Sen. Jack Whitver, R-Knoxville, Rubio’s Iowa campaign chairman, during the Mason City stop.

Rubio is often pegged as voters’ second or third choice, but after solid performances in the Republican debates, he has started to draw more interest.

“He moved up a peg for me,” said Jeanie Haas, a Mason City resident who attended Rubio’s event. “There wasn’t one thing that he said that I really disagreed with.”

His personal story of being raised by hard-working, immigrant parents is something Rubio often alludes to in his campaign speeches. He says he is grateful for the successful opportunities he has had — opportunities he says are only possible here in America.

“He so loves America,” said Karen Campbell, a Mason City resident. “He really portrays that and what it did for his family and the opportunities it provided him.”

Speaking in Mason City, Rubio answered questions on a broad range of topics, covering ISIS, health care and education reform, taxes, the budget and immigration.

Rubio spent a good deal of time answering questions about how he would handle immigration reform and detailed a plan involving a better tracking system for visas and beefing up border security in certain areas.

“I wanted to hear what he had to say about immigration,” Haas said. “I had heard his stance might hurt him, but I thought that he did an excellent job and answered the questions exactly how I wanted him to.”

Rubio emphasized that the United States needs to be tougher when it comes to foreign policy, saying that our adversaries don’t respect us and our allies don’t trust us.

“I liked when he talked about ISIS and the Middle East and how he would take care of it,” Steve Pirkl said at the Mason City event. “I really like his stance on foreign policy.”

John Lee, a social studies teacher from Mason City High School, also thought foreign policy is one of Rubio’s strong points. 

“I don’t like the direction we’ve been going,” Lee said. “ISIS is something that’s scary to me. Being firm and kind of putting us back on the map that way I thought was his biggest point.”

Although Rubio’s campaign appears to be gathering momentum and support, his opposition often points to his shortcomings — most notably his voting record in the Senate. 

Another issue people often have with establishment Republicans is the idea that they tend to look after big business more than they do the working class.

“I think [Rubio] gave a message that Republicans all the time miss on,” Lee said.  “They should be the party of hardworking Americans, and [Rubio] has a message of entrepreneurship. I hope he can deliver that more and more, and I think needs to.”