Things to know about Sen. Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for secretary of state

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has named Sen. Marco Rubio as his choice for secretary of state.

Here are five things to know about the Republican from Florida, now in his third U.S. Senate term:

He is the son of Cuban immigrants

Rubio, 53, was born in Miami and still calls the city his home. His father was a bartender and his mother a hotel maid. In his first Senate campaign, he repeatedly reminded voters of his working class background and “only in America” story as the son of Cuban immigrants who became a U.S. senator.

He is Catholic. But Rubio spent about six years of his childhood in Las Vegas, where he was baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and attended Mormon services. The family moved to the city when Rubio was eight and his parents found jobs in the growing hotel industry.

They returned to Miami when he was 14.

Rubio played college football and married a pro cheerleader

Rubio is a huge football fan who had dreams of making it to the NFL when he played in high school. But he only had solid offers to play from two colleges.

He chose little-known Tarkio College, located in a town of fewer than 2,000 people in the rural northwest corner of Missouri. But as the college faced bankruptcy and he suffered an injury, Rubio gave up football and transferred to a Florida school. He graduated from the University of Florida and the University of Miami Law School.

He became engaged to Jeanette Dousdebes, and she tried out and made the Miami Dolphins cheerleading squad. They married in 1998 and have four children.

He was almost Florida’s attorney general

Rubio was elected to the Florida House of Representatives, including a time when he served majority leader and speaker.

He was a longshot candidate against then-Gov. Charlie Crist for the 2010 GOP nomination for Senate. He was pressured by party leaders to drop out of the Senate race and instead run for attorney general, with promises from the party to clear the field for him. “I had all but convinced myself to quit” the Senate race, he wrote in his memoir, “An American Son.”

But when an Associated Press reporter confronted him about a tip that Rubio was switching to the attorney general’s race that week, Rubio said unequivocally, “No.” At that point, Rubio wrote, he felt he couldn’t go back on his word. He stayed in the race and won his first Senate term. He was reelected in 2016 and again in 2022.

Rubio ran for president, and tangled with Trump, in 2016

Rubio entered the 2016 presidential race, facing a crowded GOP field that included Trump. Rubio won Minnesota, where Texas Sen. Ted Cruz finished second and Trump third. His only other wins were in Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

He left the race after Trump routed him in his home state. Trump took Florida with 45.7% of the vote, while Rubio was a distant second with 27%.

Rubio and Trump exchanged verbal jabs during the race, with Trump calling Rubio “Little Marco.” Rubio responded by insulting the size of Trump’s hands and calling him a “con artist” and “vulgar.”

Their relationship improved when Trump was in the White House. When ABC News earlier this year played back some of Rubio’s 2016 comments, he downplayed them, saying “It was a campaign.”

He remained close with Trump even after being passed up for vice president in favor of Ohio Sen. JD Vance. He traveled with the former president during the race’s final stretch, giving remarks in English and Spanish at multiple rallies on the campaign’s final day.

He often talks about foreign threats, especially from China

Rubio rode the tea party wave in 2010 to rise to national prominence. He campaigned by saying then-President Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress threatened the nation’s economy by supporting disastrous domestic spending, tax and health care policies.

As vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Rubio now often discusses foreign military and economic threats, particularly China. He warns that China, Iran, North Korea and Russia are increasingly partnering against the United States.

“They all share one goal, and that is, they want to weaken America, weaken our alliances, weaken our standing and our capability and our will,” he said in a speech last March.

Brendan Farrington, The Associated Press