Marco Rubio Quote

Marco Antonio Rubio (; born May 27, 1971) is an American politician and diplomat serving as the 72nd United States secretary of state since 2025. A member of the Republican Party, he represented Florida in the United States Senate from 2011 to 2025, and was a candidate during the 2016 Republican Party primary elections for president of the United States. During his tenure as secretary of state, he has also served as the acting administrator of USAID and acting archivist of the United States.
Rubio is a Cuban American from Miami, Florida. He was the law graduate from University of Miami. After serving as a city commissioner for West Miami in the 1990s, he was elected in 2000 to represent the 111th district in the Florida House of Representatives. As the Republican majority leader, he was subsequently elected speaker of the Florida House; he served for two years beginning in November 2006. Rubio left the Florida legislature in 2008 due to term limits, and began teaching at Florida International University.
In a three-way race, Rubio was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010. In April 2015, he launched a presidential bid instead of seeking reelection. He suspended his campaign for the presidency on March 15, 2016, after losing to Donald Trump in the Florida Republican primary. He then ran for reelection to the Senate and won a second term. Despite his criticism of Trump during his presidential campaign, Rubio endorsed him before the 2016 general election and was largely supportive of his presidency. Due to his influence on U.S. policy on Latin America during the first Trump administration, he was described as a "virtual secretary of state for Latin America". He is also considered to have been one of Congress's most hawkish members with regard to China and the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese government sanctioned him twice in 2020 and he is banned from entering China. Rubio became Florida's senior senator in January 2019, following the defeat of former senator Bill Nelson, and was reelected to a third term in 2022, defeating Democratic nominee Val Demings in a landslide victory. Rubio endorsed Trump for president in 2024 days before the Iowa caucuses.
In November 2024, President-elect Trump announced his intention to nominate Rubio to be secretary of state in his second administration. Rubio was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate and took office on January 21, 2025. He is the first Hispanic to serve in the position, making him the highest-ranking Hispanic American official in U.S. history. Rubio is also the first Floridian to serve as Secretary of State.