Republicans like Rubio for secretary of state. There’s already talk of successors
Donald Trump may have passed up Marco Rubio in his search for a running mate, but Republicans still see the U.S. senator as a top contender for another high-profile job in a future Trump administration.
Several Florida Republicans are floating Rubio as a potential pick for U.S. secretary of State should Trump win the White House in November, arguing that his deep foreign policy experience — and friendly relationship with Trump — make him a prime contender to serve as the country’s top diplomat.
The election is nearly four months away, and even Trump’s allies say the former president is still far from finalizing a potential Cabinet. But Rubio — the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the body’s Foreign Relations Committee — has both the experience and foreign policy chops to lead the U.S. State Department, Republicans told the Miami Herald.
Emilio Gonzalez, a former Miami city manager and U.S. Customs and Immigration Services director under President George W. Bush, called Rubio “eminently qualified” for the job.
“Senator Rubio has developed an incredible international expertise,” Gonzalez said. “He’s been very consistent throughout the years on things like American exceptionalism, international human rights, promoting democracy around the world.”
Rubio’s office declined to comment. A spokesperson for the senator said earlier this week after Trump tapped U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate that Rubio was focused on his role in the Senate and helping Republicans up and down the ballot get elected in November.
In a statement to the Herald, Brian Hughes, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, called Rubio “a great supporter and friend” of Trump, who “will continue to play a role in this movement all the way to November.” He declined to speculate on any potential Cabinet positions in a hypothetical Trump administration.
“Speculation of anything beyond November is a game we won’t play, and decisions like these will be made by President Trump after we win on November 5th,” Hughes said.
Rubio was considered a top contender to serve as Trump’s running mate this fall, but was ultimately passed over in favor of Vance. People familiar with the deliberations said that the former president’s decision came down, in part, to his and Rubio’s residency status: Both men call Florida home, and a provision in the 12th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution bars presidential electors from voting for both a president and vice president from their home state.
Eric Trump, one of the former president’s sons, told Florida Republicans at a breakfast on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Tuesday that his father also felt a certain “chemistry” with Vance, an author and venture capitalist who is only a year and a half into his first Senate term.
‘A NATURAL FIT’
For Rubio, who unsuccessfully ran for the Republican presidential nomination eight years ago, Trump’s decision was a setback in his quest for executive office. But some Republicans said that a diplomatic job would better highlight his strengths — and South Florida’s role in international affairs.
Kevin Cabrera, a Miami-Dade County commissioner who worked for the Trump campaign in 2020, said that Rubio’s expertise on Latin America would send a signal to strongmen in places like Cuba, Venezuela or Nicaragua if he were tapped to lead the State Department.
“The Castro regime, the Maduro regime, the Ortega regime — it would be their worst nightmare,” Cabrera said.
Gonzalez said that being the son of Cuban immigrants would give Rubio “a very unique insight into being secretary of state.”
While much of the national discussion about diplomacy has centered on Washington’s relations with countries like China or Russia, Florida state Rep. Alex Rizo, the chairman of the Miami-Dade Republican Party, said that a potential Trump administration would have to cultivate and build on its ties to Latin American countries, especially if Trump hopes to tackle major policy challenges like illegal immigration or the opioid epidemic.
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During Trump’s first term, Rubio helped shape some of his administration’s Cuba policy.
“If the president is successful in his bid — and I think he will be — I think [Rubio] certainly will serve in the president’s cabinet and most likely be Secretary of State,” Rizo said. “You see his knowledge of the world, you see the positions he’s held in the Senate. It’s just a natural fit for him.”
A GIFT TO DESANTIS
Though Rubio’s ascension to secretary of state remains a hypothetical scenario that depends on a number of circumstances, including Trump winning in November, the possibility has already set off talk about who would succeed the senator.
Two people familiar with the former president’s thinking said that he’s reluctant to pull Rubio out of the Senate, because it would give Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a one-time rival for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, the chance to appoint a replacement.
If Rubio resigns from the U.S. Senate to take up a Cabinet position in Trump’s White House, DeSantis will have the opportunity to appoint whomever he wants to that seat — even himself. After DeSantis’ failed presidential race this year, it’s expected he’ll seek the White House again in 2028. He’ll want to pick a staunch ally who will help him in that race.
DeSantis has been previously uninterested in going back to Congress, according to three sources familiar with his thinking, who were granted anonymity so they could speak more freely. But now that Vance is the immediate Republican presidential frontrunner for 2028, those sources believe DeSantis will consider appointing himself to the Senate seat should Rubio resign. In the Senate, he remains a viable presidential candidate, even if he fails again, or chooses to delay his next campaign.
DeSantis’ office did not respond to a request for comment.
There is precedent for DeSantis to appoint his chief of staff and trusted political adviser, James Uthmeier, to Rubio’s senate seat.
When then-Republican Charlie Crist was governor in 2009, he appointed his chief of staff and top political adviser George LeMieux to Sen. Mel Martinez’ seat after he resigned. Lemieux then chose not to seek election, allowing Crist to run a campaign to win the seat — a race ultimately won by Rubio.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and former House Speaker Jose Oliva have also been discussed as potential Senate nominees, though both are believed to be more interested in a run for governor in 2026.
Moody couldn’t be reached for comment.
Oliva, a Miami Lakes Republican who endorsed DeSantis during his first gubernatorial bid at a time when DeSantis had little support among Tallahassee’s political elite and was down 15 points in the polls, dismissed talk of a potential appointment as “a hypothetical on a hypothetical.”
“It’s way way too early for any of that,” he said.