USA-ELECTION/RUBIO PROFILE U.S. Senator Rubio expected to launch White House bid on Monday

Record ID: 135608

  • Title: USA-ELECTION/RUBIO PROFILE U.S. Senator Rubio expected to launch White House bid on Monday
  • Date: 12th April 2015
  • Summary: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE-JULY 17, 2014) (UNRESTRICTED POOL) COMMITTEE MEMBERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SENATOR MARCO RUBIO SAYING: "The word of mouth in Central America is that these traffickers are using that there is this new special law in America. There's a special law that allows you to stay and part of the tactics that they are using and are being spre
  • Embargoed: 27th April 2015 13:00
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  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVADEQFI0MFEO8H4QP119K44S0FF
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  • Story Text: Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a son of Cuban immigrants who rode the Tea Party wave of 2010 to national prominence, is expected to announce on Monday (April 13) that he plans to run for president in the 2016 election.
    In the Senate, the 43-year-old Rubio has tried to update traditional Republican goals with new ideas drawn from conservative intellectuals in an effort to appeal to middle class voters.
    Though he owes his success to the anti-establishment Tea Party movement, Rubio also has drawn support from more traditional elements of the Republican Party as well as the libertarian-leaning network assembled by billionaire Charles and David Koch.
    His effort to overhaul the United States' immigration system could be a sticking point for Republican conservatives, many of whom view any move to grant legal status to undocumented workers as "amnesty."
    Rubio worked with Democrats to pass a sweeping immigration reform bill through the Senate in 2013 that bolstered border security and guest-worker programs with a pathway to citizenship for those who are now in the country illegally. The measure died in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
    Rubio now says any immigration reforms must be passed piece by piece, with border security coming first - a position more in line with other Republican lawmakers. But he talks frequently about the central role immigrants play in revitalizing the United States.
    As a presidential candidate, Rubio will have to compete for donors and endorsements with his political mentor, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who has spent the past few months lining up support across the politically competitive state even though he has not yet formally announced his presidential bid.
    However, Rubio has made a favorable impression with many of the wealthy donors who are poised to pour an unprecedented amount of money into the 2016 race. He came in first place in an informal poll of participants at a private conference of donors in the Koch brothers network in Palm Springs, California in January.
    A native of a working-class neighborhood in Miami, Rubio frequently invokes his humble roots. His father worked as a bartender and his mother worked as a maid after they immigrated from Cuba in 1956, and he says he was still paying off his school loans when he entered the Senate in 2011.
    Rubio was widely mocked in 2013 when he reached for a water bottle in a nationally televised speech responding to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.
    Rubio has spent most of his career in politics. He was elected as a city commissioner in West Miami shortly after getting his law degree from the University of Miami before winning a seat in the Florida state legislature. He became speaker of the state House of Representatives in 2007.
    Rubio gained national attention in 2010 when he upset Charlie Crist, the heavily favored Republican governor, in the battle for an open U.S. Senate seat by accusing him of being insufficiently conservative and too close to Democratic President Barack Obama. Crist dropped out of the Republican Party to run as an independent, but Rubio handily beat him and a Democrat.
    In the Senate, Rubio has built a conservative track record as an advocate of increased defense spending. His tax plan, developed with Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee, combines targeted breaks for parents with the more traditional across-the-board cuts favored by most other Republicans.
    But he has also called on Republicans to do more to help working Americans get ahead, rather than just cutting taxes and paring back regulations.
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