Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio’s national stature continued to rise last evening.
Senator Rubio has never been shy when discussing his humble upbringing in a family of Cuban immigrants. Last night he used his personal story to blast the president's call for tax increases while also offering a message of hope.“This opportunity to make it to the middle class or beyond no matter where you start out in life", said Rubio. "It isn’t bestowed on us from Washington. It comes from a vibrant free economy where people can risk their own money to open a business and when they succeed they hire more people.”
The speech offered Florida’s junior senator a perch to reach one of his largest audiences to date.
Manuel Roig-Franzia, author of The Rise of Marco Rubio, says getting tapped by party leaders to deliver the Republican response to President Obama shows the party has high hopes for this young senator.
“They clearly are positioning him to be a leader in the Republican Party. It seems patently obvious that he’s interested in making a run for the White House", Roig-Franzia said. "And getting chosen to give a speech like this is just further affirmation of that.”
In taking full advantage of the national stage Rubio did something no one has done before: he delivered his response in two languages. With Republicans struggling to reach out to the growing number of Hispanic voters, Roig-Franzia says Rubio made a splash for the party and himself.
“It’s going to be viewed as a historic moment", Roig-Franzia said. "It will have that patina of something that has never ever happened before.”
Now all eyes are on Rubio to see if he can do something Republican leaders have failed to do in recent years: attract Latino voters into the Grand Old Party.