Marco Rubio

His parents were Cubans who immigrated to the United States in 1956 during the regime of Fulgencio Batista, two and a half years before Fidel Castro ascended to power after the Cuban Revolution.

Rubio's maternal grandfather, Pedro Victor Garcia, immigrated to the U.S. legally in 1956, but returned to Cuba to find work in 1959.

His parents actually left Cuba in 1956, during the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.

According to the Post, "[in] Florida, being connected to the post-revolution exile community gives a politician cachet that could never be achieved by someone identified with the pre-Castro exodus, a group sometimes viewed with suspicion."

Rubio denied that he had embellished his family history, stating that his public statements about his family were based on "family lore".

Rubio asserted that his parents intended to return to Cuba in the 1960s.

His mother made at least four return trips to Cuba after Castro's takeover, including a month-long trip in 1961.

He added that his mother took his two elder siblings back to Cuba in 1961 with the intention of living there permanently (his father remained behind in Miami "wrapping up the family's matters"), but the nation's move toward communism caused the family to change its plans.

Rubio stated that "[the] essence of my family story is why they came to America in the first place; and why they had to stay."

Rubio has three siblings: older brother Mario, older sister Barbara (married to Orlando Cicilia), and younger sister Veronica (formerly married to entertainer Carlos Ponce).

Growing up, his family was Catholic, though from age8 to age11 he and his family attended the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while living in Las Vegas.

During those years in Nevada, his father worked as a bartender at Sam's Town Hotel and his mother as a housekeeper at the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino.

When he fled communist Cuba and returned to the U.S. in 1962 without a visa, he was detained as an undocumented immigrant and an immigration judge ordered him to be deported.

Immigration officials reversed their decision later that day, the deportation order was not enforced, and Garcia was given a legal status of "parolee" that allowed him to stay in the U.S. Garcia re-applied for permanent resident status in 1966 following passage of the Cuban Adjustment Act, at which point his residency was approved.

Rubio enjoyed a close relationship with his grandfather during his childhood.

Marco Antonio Rubio (born May 28, 1971) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the senior United States senator from Florida, a seat he has held since 2011.

Neither of Rubio's parents was a U.S. citizen at the time of Rubio's birth, but his parents applied for U.S. citizenship and were naturalized in 1975.

Some relatives of Rubio's were admitted to the U.S. as refugees.

He received his first communion as a Catholic in 1984 before moving back to Miami with his family a year later.

He was confirmed and later married in the Catholic Church.

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 (now Santa Fe College) in Gainesville, Florida.

After serving as a city commissioner for West Miami in the 1990s, he was elected to represent the 111th district in the Florida House of Representatives in 2000.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Florida in 1993 and his Juris Doctor cum laude from the University of Miami School of Law in 1996.

Rubio has said that he incurred $100,000 in student loans.

A member of the Republican Party, he served as Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives from 2006 to 2008.

Subsequently, he was elected speaker of the Florida House; he served for two years beginning in November 2006.

Upon leaving the Florida legislature in 2008 due to term limits, Rubio taught at Florida International University.

In a three-way race, Rubio was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010.

In October 2011, The Washington Post reported that Rubio's previous statements that his parents were forced to leave Cuba in 1959 (after Fidel Castro came to power) were falsehoods.

In April 2015, he launched a presidential bid instead of seeking reelection.

Rubio unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 2016, but won presidential primaries in Minnesota, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Rubio is a Cuban American from Miami, Florida.

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 the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, 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 Trump administration, he was described as a "virtual secretary of state for Latin America".

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.

Rubio endorsed Trump for president in 2024 days before the Iowa caucuses.

Marco Antonio Rubio was born in Miami, Florida, the second son and third child of Mario Rubio Reina and Oriales (née Garcia) Rubio.