He's already being treated like the 2016 GOP presidential front-runner, and now there is another reason Republicans are excitedly buzzing about Florida Sen. Marco Rubio: He alone would reverse the party's slide among Hispanic voters.
A new nationwide poll from JZ Analytics found that Rubio would get 48 percent of the Hispanic vote, about twice what Mitt Romney won in 2012. Republican strategist told Secrets that a win among Latino voters that big would assure Rubio the presidency, since he would also likely keep the regular GOP base.
"If he does that good, then he's the next president," said a senior GOP official. "It makes him The Man, I guess," added the official.
The poll, provided to Secrets, did not indicate why Hispanics like Rubio, other than his story growing up in Florida as a child of Cuban parents is well known. He has also joined the bipartisan Senate effort to reform immigration.
