Marco Rubio (/ˈruːbioʊ/; born May 28, 1971) is an American politician, diplomat, and attorney serving since 2025 as the 72nd United States Secretary of State. He was a Republican United States Senator from Florida. Rubio was a candidate for the Republican nomination for president of the United States in the 2016 election.
Rubio supports balancing the federal budget while prioritizing defense spending. He believes that humans are contributing to climate change, but questions the extent to which the United States is responsible for it, claiming that other nations, such as the People's Republic of China, are primarily responsible. He wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, replacing it with tax credits and less regulation. He opposes net neutrality. Regarding immigration, he supports "securing the country's borders," offering a path to citizenship to some undocumented immigrants, and increasing vetting requirements of refugees. Rubio identifies as pro-life. On taxes, Rubio says he would set corporate taxes to 25 percent and cap economic regulations. Rubio opposed the Obama administration's normalization of relations with Cuba. Rubio supports increased sanctions on Iran and opposed the Iran Nuclear Deal.
During the Syrian war, Rubio opposed accepting Syrian refugees because he believed background checks could not be done under the conditions of the time. He supported working with allies to set up no-fly zones in Syria to protect civilians from Bashar al-Assad. He also favors mass government surveillance of the American population and has stated that gun control laws fail to achieve their purpose. He is supportive of the Trans-Pacific Partnership because it is his belief that the U.S. risks exclusion from global trade unless it is more open to trade. He is very hawkish with China regarding national security and human rights; he supports increased U.S. military presence in that region. On capital punishment, Rubio favors "streamlining the appeals process" so that the death penalty can occur more frequently.
Broad overview of political stance As of early 2015, Rubio had a 98.67 rating by the American Conservative Union, based on his lifetime voting record in the Senate. According to the National Journal, in 2013 Rubio had been the 17th most conservative senator. The Club for Growth gave Rubio ratings of 93 percent and 91 percent based on his voting record in 2014 and 2013 respectively, and he has a lifetime rating from the organization above 90 percent.
Rubio initially won his U.S. Senate seat with strong Tea Party support, but his 2013 support for comprehensive immigration reform legislation led to a decline in that support.Factbox: Republican 2016 presidential field swells to 14 with Christie, Reuters (June 30, 2015): "He was swept into the Senate in the Tea Party wave of 2010 but has fought to strengthen ties with conservatives after he helped lead a failed push for comprehensive immigration reform in 2013."Tim Mak, Tea Partiers Rage Against Rubio 2016, Daily Beast (April 13, 2015). Rubio's stance on military, foreign policy and national security issues — such as his support for arming the Syrian rebels and for the NSA — alienated some libertarian-leaning Tea Party activists.Budget Brawl Gives Ted Cruz, Rand Paul a Chance to Break Out, Bloomberg News (June 22, 2015): "The budget and spending fight highlights widening divisions in the Republican Party between conservatives like Florida's Marco Rubio, concerned about shoring up the military, and Tea Party-aligned Republicans, like Cruz and Paul, more committed to limiting the size of government."
Drug policy and criminal justice reform Rubio supports continued criminal penalties for recreational cannabis use. In January 2014, he said: "I don't think legalizing marijuana or even decriminalizing it is the right decision for our country." In a May 2014 interview, Rubio said there is "no responsible way to recreationally use" marijuana and that legalization of the drug would be "bad for the country". Rubio said that he only supports the use of cannabis for medical purposes if it is the non-psychoactive type (such as "Charlotte's web") approved by the Florida legislature, and that a 2014 ballot measure to legalize medical use in Florida was a "ruse". Rubio has said that as president he would enforce federal law in states that have legalized cannabis.
Regarding the legalization of drugs in general, Rubio has stated, "I personally believe that legalizing drugs would be a great mistake and that any reductions in sentences for drug crimes should be made with great care." He also said that "too often" the conversation about criminal justice reform "starts and ends with drug policy". In 2018, he was one of 12 senators to vote against the First Step Act, a criminal justice reform bill signed into law by President Trump.
Education K-12 As a legislator, Rubio was active in pursuing K12 policy including introducing the Educational Opportunities Act in 2013. As a presidential candidate, Rubio has argued for closing the federal Department of Education, expanding public charter schools, and for teaching both creationism and evolution.
Additionally, Rubio has taken a strong stance against the Common Core State Standards, arguing that, while they "started out as [a] well-intentioned effort to develop more rigorous curriculum standards", that they will eventually be "used to force on states policies the federal government wants".
Post-secondary Rubio has proposed a plan to reform the country's higher education system, which includes: expanded vocational and apprenticeship programs; a proposed "Student Right to Know Before You Go Act," which would require colleges to inform students prior to taking out loans of the future income they could expect after obtaining a degree; a proposal to automatically base student loan payments on subsequent income; and, enabling students to partner with investors who would receive a percentage of the students' income in return for funding their education. The plan also included a commitment to create a new college accreditation program in the first 100 days of Rubio's administration had he been elected in 2016.Abby Jackson (July 7, 2015). Marco Rubio has a wild plan to have investors pay for college and make money off students' future earnings. Business Insider. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
Rubio has supported President Donald Trump's effort to crack down on pro-Palestinian protesters on university campuses saying, he has removed the visas of "Maybe more than 300 at this point, We do it every day, every time I find one of these lunatics."
Gun policy As of 2016, Rubio had an A+ grade from the NRA's Political Victory Fund. He has stated that the Second Amendment is a cornerstone of American democracy.
However, he voted for a gun ban in Florida Public Parks in 1999, and, as Florida Speaker of the House, Rubio failed to push a law allowing guns at work. He believes that gun control laws generally fail to achieve their purpose.
In the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Rubio stated that he does not support arming teachers to address the frequency of school shootings in the United States, calling it "a terrible idea".
Rubio opposes banning assault weapons, stating that if he believed that such a ban "would have prevented this from happening, I would have supported it." In contrast, Rubio does support legislation that would prevent those under the age of 18 from purchasing assault weapons.
Rubio also supports modifying the current system of background checks for purchasing guns, as well as legislation to ban bump stocks. Rubio has announced his support for gun-violence restraining orders and said that he is reconsidering his support of high-capacity magazines — though he stopped short of taking a firm stance. At a town hall meeting in February 2018, Rubio stated, "I support lifting the age from 18 to 21 for buying a rifle."
In January 2019, Rubio was one of 31 Republican senators to cosponsor the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, a bill introduced by John Cornyn and Ted Cruz that would grant individuals with concealed carry privileges in their home state the right to exercise this right in any other state with concealed carry laws while concurrently abiding by that state's laws.
Energy and environment Before 2018, Rubio rejected the scientific consensus that human activity is the main cause of climate change, stating "there is no consensus on ... how much of the changes that are going on are due to human activity," and that proposals to address climate change would be ineffective and economically harmful. The website PolitiFact had said that Rubio "consistently either avoids the link between human activity and climate change, or outright denies it." By his second term as senator, Rubio had acknowledged that humans contribute to greenhouse gases, and that sea levels are rising at a measurable rate, commenting on the Green New Deal, "While Earth’s climate is changing, there is no credible scenario that will lead to the destruction — or salvation — of the planet within 10 to 12 years, as some Green New Deal proponents allege. Also true: Communities and local businesses in my home state of Florida are already dealing with the very real impacts of rising sea levels, and yet, the Green New Deal will do nothing to address that reality". Rubio believes that other nations like China are mainly responsible for climate change."Marco Rubio on the Issues", New York Times. Retrieved February 8, 2016.
In response to the encyclical Laudato si' by Pope Francis in 2015, in which Francis warns of the dangers of climate change,Pope’s Views on Climate Change Add Pressure to Catholic Candidates in the New York Times Rubio, a Roman Catholic, replied: "I have no problem with what the pope did" and "[Pope Francis] is a moral authority and as a moral authority is reminding us of our obligation to be good caretakers to the planet. I'm a political leader. And my job as a policymaker is to act in the common good. And I do believe it's in the common good to protect our environment, but I also believe it's in the common good to protect our economy."Marco Rubio: 'No problem' with Catholic Church on climate change but economy more important in Miami Herald
During his 2016 presidential run, Rubio called for ending the crude oil export ban, block the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan for reducing carbon emissions, and expand the use of coal, natural gas, and hydraulic fracturing. He avoided saying the words "climate change" in his environmental plan.
During Obama's presidency, Rubio said that Environmental Protection Agency rules were too burdensome, and called for reversing some of the administration's environmental policies.
As reported by The Hill in 2018, Jeanette Nuñez will introduce legislation in Florida "to standardize daylight saving time for the entire calendar year". To make the "Sunshine Protection Act" nationwide, Senator Marco Rubio would sponsor such a bill in the Senate given the bill could not take effect until the federal government makes the change. This is because the "provision would shift the state into a different time zone permanently", something which requires a federal regulatory action or an act of Congress.
In March 2019, Rubio was an original cosponsor of a bipartisan bill intended to mandate the Environmental Protection Agency declare per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances as hazardous substances that could be addressed with cleanup funds via the EPA Superfund law in addition to forming a requirement that polluters undertake or pay for remediation within a year of the bill being enacted.