If Donald Trump chooses Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, the fluent Spanish-speaking son of Cuban immigrants, as his running mate, Rubio would make history as the first Latino vice presidential nominee — and he’d also be taking a final step in his conversion from Trump antagonist to loyalist.
The question behind the election would be whether Rubio, the Cuban American son of a bartender and a hotel maid, and his storied political ascent can mobilize a segment of Latino and other voters toward the Trump ticket.
Although Trump gained Latino votes in 2020 compared to 2016, he was still rejected by almost two-thirds of Latino voters in his last presidential election. Polls suggest Trump has gained more Latino support this year.
Manuel Tapia, 54, an optician and Air Force veteran in Tucson, Arizona, who already plans to vote for Trump, said “it means a great deal” to have a Latino on the ticket with Trump.
“I think the community and the whole country will be in better hands. …They can combine their beliefs and their upbringing and come together and make something better for everybody, not just one-sided,” Tapia, who voted for Trump in 2016 and in 2020, said about a Trump-Rubio ticket.
Rubio’s ability to campaign fluently in English and Spanish would be a major asset, said Giancarlo Sopo, a communications strategist who worked on Hispanic media strategy for Trump in 2020 but isn’t involved in this year’s campaign.
“Republicans are making big gains with English-dominant Latinos; where they tend to struggle more is with the Hispanics whose primary sources of news are Spanish-language media outlets,” Sopo said. Democrats had a 40-percentage-point advantage among Latinos who get their news in Spanish and a 13-point advantage with those who get it in English, he said, citing a poll he conducted on behalf of Republican groups in October 2022.
Although Trump turned out new Latino voters in 2020, the GOP didn’t record similar gains in Latino voters in the midterms, said Bernard Fraga, an Emory University political science professor and author of “The Turnout Gap.”
Rubio’s presence on the ticket could bring out Latinos who would otherwise stay home, Fraga said.
According to The Associated Press, more than half of Latino voters in Florida voted for Rubio and Gov. Ron DeSantis in the 2022 midterms. In 2020, Trump got less than half (46%) of Florida’s Latino vote.
The many new, young and uncommitted voters in the ranks of the Latino electorate — 36.2 million Hispanics are eligible to vote this year — give Rubio room to woo voters with his heritage and family story, his Christian faith and his expertise in foreign policy, taxes and other topics.
“For Rubio, it’s a story of mobilizing Latino Republicans. He’s not going to convert a lot of people, but he might build even more enthusiasm and make Republicans’ jobs even easier in terms of convincing Latinos that the party cares about them,” Fraga said.
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