Marco Rubio

Marco Antonio Rubio is the senior United States senator from Florida. He previously served as speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. Rubio unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for president of the United States in 2016. His parents were Cubans who immigrated to the U.S. in 1956, two and a half years prior to Fidel Castro’s ascension to power after the Cuban Revolution. Rubio has three siblings: older brother Mario, older sister Barbara, and younger sister Veronica.

About Marco Rubio in brief

Summary Marco RubioMarco Antonio Rubio is the senior United States senator from Florida. He previously served as speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. Rubio unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for president of the United States in 2016. His parents were Cubans who immigrated to the U.S. in 1956, two and a half years prior to Fidel Castro’s ascension to power after the Cuban Revolution. His mother made at least four return trips to Cuba after Castro’s takeover, including a month-long trip in 1961. Rubio’s maternal grandfather, Pedro Victor Garcia, returned to Cuba to find work in 1959. Rubio has three siblings: older brother Mario, older sister Barbara, and younger sister Veronica. In April 2015, he announced that he would not seek re-election to the Senate, instead choosing to run for president. He suspended his campaign for president on March 15, 2016, after losing the Florida Republican primary to the eventual winner of the presidential election, Donald Trump. Rubio won a second term later that year. He has been described as a ‘virtual secretary of state for Latin America’ due to his influence on U. S. policies in regard to Latin America. He is married to fellow Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and has a son and a daughter, both of whom were born in Miami, Florida. Rubio attended South Miami Senior High School, graduating in 1989. He attended Tarkio College in Missouri for one year on a football scholarship before enrolling at Santa Fe Community College. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Florida in 1993.

In 1996, Rubio was elected to a seat as city commissioner for West Miami. In 2000, Rubio became a member of the House of Florida. In early 1999, Rubio paid off 100,000 student loans that he incurred in late 2012. He also worked on Republican senator Bob Dole’s presidential campaign in 1996. He was confirmed and later married in the Catholic Church. In 2008, Rubio taught at Florida International University. Rubio successfully ran for the United United States Senate in 2010. He won a seat in the Florida legislature in 2008 due to term limits, and was elected speaker for two years beginning in November 2006. Rubio enjoyed a close relationship with his grandfather during his childhood. His family was Roman Catholic, though from age 8 to age 11 he and his family attended The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while living in Las Vegas. His father worked as a bartender at Sam’s Town Hotel and his mother as a housekeeper at the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino. Neither of Rubio’s parents was a U. s. citizen at the time of his birth, but his parents applied for citizenship and were naturalized in 1975. Some relatives of Rubio’s were admitted to the US as refugees. In October 2011, newspapers reported that Rubio’s previous statements that his parents were forced to leave Cuba in 1959, after Fidel Castro came to power, were embellishments. Rubio responded: “The essence of my family story is why they came to America in the first place, and why they had to stay.”