Marco Rubio

Biography

Marco Rubio was born in Miami on 28 May 1971 to Cuban parents who had emigrated to the United States in 1956; he spent part of his childhood in Las Vegas before the family returned to Miami. He graduated from the University of Florida and took a law degree at the University of Miami.

He began in politics on the West Miami city commission in 1998 and in 2000 won a seat in the Florida House of Representatives, where he became Republican majority leader and then, from 2006 to 2008, Speaker. Term-limited, he left the legislature in 2008 and taught at Florida International University. In 2010 he won a three-way race for the US Senate.

He represented Florida in the Senate from 2011 to 2025, becoming known for hawkish views on China and for his influence over policy towards Latin America; he chaired the Small Business Committee and was acting chair and then vice chair of the Intelligence Committee. He ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 but withdrew after losing his home state's primary to Donald Trump, and then won re-election to the Senate that year and again in 2022.

Trump chose him as secretary of state, and he was confirmed unanimously and took office on 21 January 2025, the first Latino to hold the post. From May 2025 he also served as national security advisor, the first person to combine the two jobs since Henry Kissinger, and for periods in 2025 and 2026 he was also acting head of USAID and acting Archivist of the United States.