Marco Rubio

Marco Antonio Rubio was born on May 28, 1971, in Miami, Florida. He is the second son and third child of Mario Rubio Reina and Oriales (née García) Rubio. His parents were Cubans, of Spanish and Italian descent, 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. His mother made at least four return trips to Cuba after Castro's takeover, including a month-long trip in 1961, and a return to Cuba had been planned before the changes in their native country. Rubio's parents were not U.S. citizens at the time of Rubio's birth. They were naturalized in 1975. Some relatives of Rubio's were admitted to the U.S. as refugees.

Rubio's maternal grandfather, Pedro Victor Garcia, immigrated to the U.S. legally in 1956, but returned to Cuba to find work in 1959. When in 1962 he fled communist Cuba and returned to the U.S. without a visa, he was detained as an undocumented immigrant and an immigration judge ordered him to be deported. But immigration officials reversed their decision later that day, and the deportation order was not enforced. Instead, Garcia was reclassified to the legal status of "parolee" that allowed him to stay in the U.S. He reapplied for permanent resident status in 1966 after the Cuban Adjustment Act passed, and his residency was approved. Rubio had a close relationship with his grandfather during his childhood.

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. His parents left Cuba in 1956, during the Batista regime. 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. …

While studying law, Rubio interned for U.S. representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. He also worked on Republican senator Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign. In April 1998, two years after finishing law school, Rubio was elected to a seat as city commissioner for West Miami. He was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in early 2000.

In late 1999, a special election was called to fill the seat for the 111th House District in the Florida House of Representatives, representing Miami. It was considered a safe Republican seat, so Rubio's main challenge was to win the GOP nomination. He campaigned as a moderate, advocating tax cuts and early childhood education.

Rubio placed second in the Republican primary on December 14, 1999, but won the runoff election for the Republican nomination, defeating Angel Zayon (a television and radio reporter who was popular with Cuban exiles) by 64 votes. He defeated Democrat Anastasia Garcia with 72% of the vote in a January 25, 2000, special election.

In November 2000, Rubio was reelected unopposed. In 2002, he was reelected to a second term unopposed. In 2004, he was reelected to a third term with 66% of the vote. In 2006, he was reelected to a fourth term unopposed.

Rubio served in the Florida House of Representatives for nearly nine years. Since the Florida legislative session officially lasted only 60 days, he spent about half of each year in Miami, where he practiced law. He worked at a law firm that specialized in land use and zoning until 2014, when he took a position with Broad and Cassel, a Miami law and lobbying firm. (State law precluded him from engaging in lobbying or introducing legislation on behalf of the firm's clients).

When Rubio took his seat in the legislature in Tallahassee in January 2000, voters in Florida had recently approved a constitutional amendment on term limits. This created openings for new legislative leaders due to many senior incumbents having to retire. According to an article in National Journal, Rubio also gained an extra advantage in that regard, because he was sworn in early due to the special election, and he would take advantage of these opportunities to join the GOP leadership.

Later in 2000, the majority leader of the House, Mike Fasano, promoted Rubio to be one of two majority whips. National Journal described that position as typically requiring much arm-twisting, but said Rubio took a different approach that relied more on persuading legislators and less on coercing them.

Fasano resigned in September 2001 as majority leader of the House due to disagreements with the House speaker, and the speaker passed over Rubio to appoint a more experienced replacement for Fasano. …

After leaving the Florida Legislature in 2008, Rubio began teaching under a fellowship appointment at Florida International University (FIU) as an adjunct professor. In 2011, after entering the U.S. Senate, he rejoined the FIU faculty. He has taught undergraduate courses on Florida politics, political parties, and legislative politics.

Rubio's appointment as an FIU professor was initially criticized. The university obtained considerable state funding when Rubio was speaker of the Florida House, and many other university jobs were being eliminated due to funding issues at the time FIU appointed him to the faculty. When Rubio accepted the fellowship appointment as an adjunct professor at FIU, he agreed to raise most of the funding for his position from private sources.

In 1998, Rubio married Jeanette Dousdebes, who also is from a Hispanic family. Her parents immigrated from Colombia. She is a former bank teller and Miami Dolphins cheerleader. Their wedding was held in a Catholic church, the Church of the Little Flower. They have four children. Their eldest son, Anthony, is a running back for the Florida Gators football team. Rubio and his family live in West Miami, Florida. Rubio is bilingual and fluent in Spanish, his first language.

Rubio is Catholic and attends Mass at Church of the Little Flower in Coral Gables, Florida. He previously attended Christ Fellowship, a Southern Baptist Church, in The Hammocks, Florida (among those mentioned earlier).

In a speech at the 2026 Security Conference in Munich, Rubio said he was of Spanish and Italian heritage from Seville and Casale Monferrato, Kingdom of Piedmont.

Rubio is a fan of 1990s hip-hop, including 2Pac, Public Enemy, and Eminem. He has referenced hip-hop lyrics in political speeches.