Marco Antonio Rubio (; born May 28, 1971) is an American politician, attorney, and the junior United States Senator for Florida. A Republican Party member, he was previously Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. Rubio is a Cuban American from Miami, with a B.A. from the University of Florida and a J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law. In the late 1990s, he was a City Commissioner for West Miami and was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2000, representing the 111th House district.

In late 1999, a special election was called to fill the seat for the 111th House District in the Florida House of Representatives, representing Miami. The seat had been held by Representative Carlos Valdes, who had run for and won an open Florida State Senate seat. It was considered a safe Republican seat, so Rubio's main challenge was to win the GOP nomination. He campaigned as a moderate, advocating tax cuts and early childhood education.  Rubio placed second in the Republican primary on December 14, 1999, but won the run-off election for the Republican nomination, defeating Angel Zayon (a television and radio reporter who was popular with Cuban exiles) by just 64 votes. He then defeated Democrat Anastasia Garcia with 72% of the vote in a January 25, 2000 special election.  In November 2000, Rubio won re-election unopposed. In 2002, he won re-election to a second full term unopposed. In 2004, he won re-election to a third full term with 66% of the vote. In 2006, he won re-election to a fourth full term unopposed.  Rubio spent almost nine years in the Florida House of Representatives. Since the Florida legislative session officially lasted only 60 days, he was able to spend about half of each year in Miami, where he worked first at a law firm that specialized in land use and zoning, and later starting in 2004, took a position with Broad and Cassel, a Miami law and lobbying firm, though state law precluded him from engaging in lobbying or introducing legislation on behalf of the firm's clients.

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