Marco Rubio

Marco Rubio (born May 28, 1971, Miami, Florida, U.S.) is an American Republican politician who represents Florida in the U.S. Senate (2011– ). After dropping out of the U.S. presidential election of 2016, Rubio underwent a political shift. While once a favorite of the party’s establishment, he has become a leading proponent of conservative populism. In 2024 President-elect Donald Trump selected Rubio to serve as secretary of state in his upcoming administration.

Early life, education, and Florida House of Representatives

Rubio’s parents left their native Cuba in 1956, during the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship, and moved to the United States. The family initially settled in Miami but later moved to Las Vegas, where his father was a bartender and his mother a hotel housekeeper. While in Nevada, Marco, who had been raised Roman Catholic, was baptized as a Mormon, but several years later he rejoined the Catholic Church. In 1985 the Rubios returned to Florida.

After graduating from the University of Florida in 1993, Rubio studied law at the University of Miami. During that time, he worked for Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican who was the first Hispanic woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. After earning a law degree in 1996, he served a term as a member of the West Miami City Commission before being elected to the Florida House of Representatives in a special election in 1999. He served from 2000 to 2008, during which time he was majority leader (2003–06) and speaker (2006–08).

Senate: first term

In 2009 Rubio announced that he was running for the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the resignation of Mel Martinez. For much of his campaign, he ran a distant second to the incumbent Republican governor, Charlie Crist, until Crist broke with the Republican Party and declared himself an independent. Rubio thus received the formal support of his party, and he won the 2010 general election by a large margin in a three-way race.

After taking office in 2011, Rubio adopted a generally conservative stance, and he was considered one of the leaders of the Tea Party movement. In keeping with most Republicans, he opposed gun control, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), same-sex marriage, climate-change curbs, and other efforts backed by the Democratic Party. However, he broke with many in his party by helping draft immigration legislation (2013) that offered a pathway to citizenship for those illegally in the United States who met certain conditions. The effort, however, failed. In foreign relations, he typically argued for an interventionist policy, and he was against efforts to normalize relations with Cuba.

2016 presidential campaign and a shift to conservative populism

In April 2015 Rubio announced that he was entering the U.S. presidential election race of 2016. His campaign platform emphasized a balanced budget, the repeal of PPACA, tax reforms, and increased border security. After the primary election season began in February 2016, Rubio emerged as the candidate preferred by the Republican establishment. However, by the following month he had managed to win only one state, and he trailed Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in number of delegates. Rubio’s campaign struggled, in part, because of constant mockery from Trump, who called him “Little Marco.” Rubio, in turn, claimed that Trump was “the most vulgar person to ever aspire to the presidency.” After losing the Florida primary in mid-March, Rubio suspended his campaign.

Rubio was poised to leave politics but ultimately decided to seek a second term. He rejoined the 2016 Senate race and won the election. Trump was also victorious, and he assumed the presidency in 2017. Sensing a shift within his party, Rubio began to transform into a conservative populist. He became a vocal supporter of the president, and the two developed a close working relationship. Following the 2020 presidential election, which Joe Biden won, Rubio voiced support for Trump’s claim of widespread voter fraud, despite a lack of evidence. However, after the U.S. Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, he voted to certify the election results.

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In 2022 Rubio was easily elected to a third term in the Senate. Shortly thereafter Trump entered the 2024 presidential race, and Rubio emerged as a potential running mate. During this time his positions on some issues shifted to align with those of Trump. Notably, while he had previously supported a federal abortion ban, in July 2024 Rubio backed a change in the Republican platform to reflect Trump’s view that abortion should be left to the states. Later that month, however, Trump selected U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance as his vice president. After Trump won the election, he picked Rubio as the next secretary of state. The post requires Senate confirmation.

Personal life

While a teenager, Rubio met his future wife, Jeanette Dousdebes. The couple married in 1998 and have four children. He wrote the memoir An American Son (2012) and a book on policy, American Dreams: Restoring Economic Opportunity for Everyone (2015).