Donald Trump has at most 2 months left to choose his running mate. With no one an overwhelming favorite to be the Republican vice presidential candidate, could Florida Senator and former Republican rival Marco Rubio fill that role for Trump?
At BetOnline (find out more with our BetOnline Review), Rubio has the 4th-best odds (+600) to be Trump’s vice president pick, trailing only Doug Burgum (+300), J.D. Vance (+450), and Tim Scott (+475).
Rubio has been climbing steadily in the odds, and he has more political experience than Burgum and Vance, and less baggage than the awkward Scott.
But Rubio also has a past of running against Trump in the 2016 election and earning a dreaded nickname (“Little Marco”) from the 45th President of the United States.
Can they set the past aside and work together? Let’s examine the VP worthiness for Marco Rubio, a potential key figure in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Who Is Marco Rubio?
Marco Rubio is a Cuban American who was born in Miami, Florida. He will be 53 years old on May 28, 2024. He has been a senator in Florida since 2011.
Rubio got his start in politics in the 1990s when he served as a city commissioner for West Miami. He also worked on Bob Dole’s presidential run for the Republican Party in 1996.
In 2000, he was elected to serve the 111th district in the Florida House of Representatives. He was soon elected speaker of the Florida House, serving a 2-year run that began in 2006.
Rubio had to leave the Florida legislature in 2008 due to term limits. He spent that time teaching at Florida International University.
He successfully ran for senator and won a 3-way race in Florida in 2010. After a failed bid for the presidency in 2016, Rubio defended his senate seat and won reelection with about 52% of the vote.
In November 2022, Rubio won a 3rd senate term when he defeated Democrat Val Demings when he received 57% of the vote.
Marco Rubio’s Political Beliefs
Rubio has been viewed as someone who has tried to push Florida farther to the right since he joined the House of Representatives in 2000. In 2013, the National Journal ranked Rubio as the 17th-most conservative senator (out of 100) based on his voting record.
Rubio, a Catholic, holds a large number of conservative and right-wing positions:
- He supports a balanced budget with a heavy emphasis on defense spending.
- He rejects much of the science behind climate change, including downplaying the theory that humans are largely contributing to its negative effects.
- He opposed Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and voted to repeal it.
- Rubio is against abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, and praised the 2022 ruling by the Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade.
- Rubio is simultaneously pro-life and in support of making it easier to use the death penalty more frequently – quite the contradiction to say the least.
- Rubio opposes same-sex marriage and has supported a bill to ban most transgender people from joining the U.S. military.
- Rubio supports the government conducting mass surveillance of the American people.
As for the topic of gun control, Rubio has an A+ rating from the NRA Political Victory Fund and is a huge advocate for the Second Amendment. He does not think gun laws have worked, and he does not support banning assault weapons but is at least open to not allowing children under 18 years old to buy them.
Rubio was pressed publicly at a town hall in 2018 shortly after the mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida where 17 people were killed. One of the survivors asked Rubio if he would not accept any more money from the NRA and he danced around the question.
The “Little Marco vs. Small Hands” Incident
Clearly, Rubio has a lot in common politically with Trump. In fact, Rubio supported Trump’s policies very strongly when Trump was in the White House.
However, things were not always peachy between these men. Rubio was one of Trump’s party challengers for the 2016 election, and Trump spent months making fun of Rubio for how much he sweats on the stage at debates.
Shots fired between Trump and Rubio.
Which is worse: Small hands or spray tans? pic.twitter.com/tLjqAkbIrV— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) November 4, 2022
Eventually, Trump started attacking his size and appearance by calling him “Little Marco” to which Rubio had a hilarious response at a Virginia rally:
“He’s always calling me Little Marco. And I’ll admit he’s taller than me. He’s like 6’2, which is why I don’t understand why his hands are the size of someone who is 5’2,” Rubio said at the rally. “And you know what they say about men with small hands? You can’t trust them.”
ALERT: Rubio makes fun of Trump’s short fingers: “You know what they say about men with small hands” pic.twitter.com/LR1uhAsv2K
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) February 29, 2016
Years before Stormy Daniels gave us the gritty details of what Trump’s manhood looks like, we had this public spat that gave us the uncomfortable picture of Trump’s privates. He ended up defending himself at the next debate from Rubio’s small hands comment, and Trump assured us that there’s no problem with his size. He even guaranteed it. Gross.
While Rubio got to him with that one, his campaign didn’t reach nearly enough voters and he soon suspended it, choosing to run for another term as senator while Trump went on to win the 2016 election.
But these two have a cloudy history for sure as Rubio repeatedly called Trump a “con man” and noted that he would be nowhere if not for millions in inheritance from his parents.
You can’t just pretend those things were never said even if Rubio has done good for Trump since in terms of voting in line with his policies.
Can Rubio Get the Nod from Trump?
Despite ranking 4th in odds at top-rated sportsbooks, Rubio still feels like a longshot or “last resort” for Trump to fall back to if his other targets fall through.
Trump’s No. 1 trait in a VP is extreme loyalty, especially after he believes Mike Pence failed him on January 6th, 2021 when he certified the votes for the 2020 election. Trump is going to want an even bigger bootlicker as his next VP, and while Rubio can fit that bill now, Trump is unlikely to forget the “small hands” barb from 8 years ago.
For what it’s worth, Rubio did vote to acquit Trump for January 6th, and he voted against the creation of a January 6 commission.
Little Marco is an underdog in this race, but at least he hasn’t blown his shot by putting his dog 6 feet under like Kristi Noem did.
