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The endorsement was not without caveats, however.

\"She is not a perfect candidate, as evidenced the way she has handled the furor over her private email server,\" the editorial board writes.

The paper hailed Rubio as the candidate most likely to \"chart a new direction\" for the Republican Party.

\"Sen. Marco Rubio has the potential to chart a new direction for the party, and perhaps the nation, with his message of restoring the American dream,\" the endorsement reads. \"We endorse him because he represents his party’s best hope.\"

Register editorial board: @MarcoRubio represents GOP's best hope: https://t.co/UbVXgELxqc #IAcaucus pic.twitter.com/kbR1pQ3y1z

— Des Moines Register (@DMRegister) January 23, 2016

The editorial board also writes: \"Yes, we wish the first-term senator had greater experience. Yes, we wish he followed the lead of colleague Chuck Grassley and rarely missed a vote in the Senate.\"

The Des Moines Register has never endorsed a Democrat that went on to win the Iowa caucus and party's nomination (in 2008, it endorsed Clinton), but since 1996 the paper has endorsed the GOP candidate who become the nominee.

Clinton was working the rope line at her \"Hard Hats for Hillary\" event in Davenport, Iowa, just as her endorsement by the Des Moines Register was announced.

\"I'm very pleased, obviously,\" she told reporters. \"It means a lot.\"

Hillary Clinton's real-time reaction to her @DMRegister endorsement: \"I'm very please, obviously.\" pic.twitter.com/wolPjsPeRK

— Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) January 23, 2016

ABC News' Liz Kreutz and Josh Haskell contributed to this report.

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