Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is poised to be the Republican standard bearer for bringing Hispanics into the party.
President Barack Obama creamed Republican Mitt Romney among that demographic — 71 to 27 percent, according to exit polls. Rubio, a Cuban-American himself, has been chiding the GOP for months to be more inclusive of Latinos.
“The conservative movement should have particular appeal to people in minority and immigrant communities who are trying to make it,” he wrote on Facebook shortly after the election was decided Wednesday morning. “And Republicans need to work harder than ever to communicate our beliefs to them.”
Many Republicans are looking for Rubio to emerge as a top figure in the GOP. “He is without question a world-class political talent with the ability to lead the party into the 21st century — a party that has become synonymous with intolerance and loons to too many swing voters,” Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, told
Politico.
Speculation abounds that Rubio will run for president. He is traveling to Iowa, whose caucuses begin the presidential nominating process, to host a fundraiser for the state’s GOP Gov. Terry Branstad Nov. 17, a Branstad spokesman told The Christian Science Monitor Thursday.
But some urge caution in anointing Rubio as the Republican savior.
“You know the media and the party — everyone is looking at this lifeboat with Marco written on the side of it and everyone wants to jump in,” GOP political strategist Alex Castellanos told Politico.
“We better be careful or we’re gonna sink it. We’re going to take one of our greatest assets and pigeonhole and typecast him. We need to move the conversation to the next generation, and he’s one of the people who understand that we have to be the party of hope,” Castellanos said.
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