Why Democrats Worry Marco Rubio as Trump Veep Could Bedevil Biden’s Bid

The traditional Cinco de Mayo event that piles Latino VIPs and administration allies into the White House provided its usual buzz of catch-ups with old friends and selfies with celebrities, including Marvel’s Xochitl Gomez and Ted Lasso’s Cristo Fernández. But it was also a laid-back affair, due in part to the muted feeling from Democrats in attendance who weren’t exactly feeling bullish about Joe Biden’s chances in November.

Few conversations better reflected this state of downbeat vigilance than those in the Rose Garden, where multiple Latino Democrats expressed fears that Senator Marco Rubio could upend the dynamics of the election if chosen as Donald Trump’s vice presidential nominee.

To be sure, there is one major obstacle: the fact that Rubio and Trump both reside in Florida. (The 12th Amendment of the Constitution prevents electors from voting for a president and vice president who live in the same state without losing that state’s electoral votes.) In theory, Rubio could get around this simply by moving, which, as Marc Caputo notes, could open up a Pandora’s box of lawsuits that Rubio would have to fend off. But the mere notion of the first Latino vice president being a Cuban American Republican is enough to make Hispanic Democrats reach for the Tums.

“It would be the first major Latino to be nominated to the second-highest office in the land,” one Cinco de Mayo attendee said. “That would be a problem.”

“Rubio is normal,” a second White House guest said, suggesting the senator could help the former president connect with a much broader electorate. “He allows Trump to make his case to Latinos directly, in a way that he himself cannot do.”

The harsh reality for Biden’s reelection campaign is that the president needs more goodwill among Latinos—a lot more. Polls suggest he is stronger with Spanish-speakers than Hispanics who predominantly speak English. That is likely why the president recently brokered a relationship reset with Univision, America’s largest Spanish-language network, which offered him a lengthy sit-down after the network gifted Trump with a much-criticized softball interview in November. But a Rubio vice presidential nomination could throw a big wrench in Biden’s Spanish-language-media forays, providing Trump with a weapon he’s never had before: a bilingual, bicultural MAGA minister able to seamlessly switch from English to Spanish, sharing the campaign’s message directly with voters.

Carlos Trujillo, who served in the US Department of State under Trump, called Rubio—whom he has known for more than a decade, with both having been in the world of Florida Republican politics—“exceptionally qualified” to be vice president. “He gives President Trump an ability to reach out more aggressively to the Hispanic community,” he said, adding that polling shows Republicans performing better with Latinos and that Rubio “widens those margins because he would be the only person onstage who could speak native Spanish.”

“He can speak policy relatably, both in English and Spanish, with zero lag, zero drop-off,” echoed Jorge Bonilla—a longtime conservative watchdog of networks like Telemundo and Univision, who now hosts a radio show on Radio Libre 790 in Miami, Florida. “In essence, he’s the apex predator of elected officials—no one else can do that.”

Rubio, who is reportedly on Trump’s VP short list—though is not as short as his Trump-given nickname might suggest—recently took to NBC News’ Meet the Press with Kristen Welker to show Trump proof of concept: He refused to commit to accepting the 2024 election results and touted debunked voter-fraud claims, including that liberal groups were buying votes in Georgia for $10 a vote and that hundreds of illegal drop boxes were used in Wisconsin in 2020. All of this rang alarm bells among Latino Democrats and progressive leaders, who fear that the senator could saturate Univision’s and Telemundo’s airwaves with similar lies as Trump’s running mate.

“We know disinformation is already pervasive, especially targeting the Latino community in the US, and something Rubio could do is continue to misinform the community,” said Sindy Benavides, the president and CEO of Latino Victory Project, which works to elect Latino Democrats. Benavides, who was at the Cinco de Mayo event, also noted that Rubio’s selection would send a clear message of the importance of the Latino vote, while also showing that “Trump is pandering to the Latino community.”

Although securing the vice presidential nomination would be a high point of Rubio’s political career, it could come with considerable personal and professional costs. One source with knowledge of Rubio’s thinking stressed that the senator is mulling over how the move could impact his family, as well as his duties in Congress, where he holds a privileged position as vice chair of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence—and could help Trump from his Senate perch, should the ex-president win.

There are also reasons for Rubio to be concerned about falling out of Trump’s good graces. Kristian Ramos, a Democratic strategist working with the Biden administration to sell its economic record, pointed to Trump’s handling of January 6 when reports showed Mike Pence was in serious danger from pro-Trump rioters. “I don’t know why Rubio would want that job,” Ramos said. “The last guy who was his vice president, he almost got killed.”

Among the Cinco de Mayo attendees, who were noshing on steak tostadas, ceviche, and guacamole, there was also another uncomfortable topic of discussion: whether Rubio, in contrast to a white man running mate like Pence, would serve as a more difficult debate opponent for Vice President Kamala Harris.

“He’s a skilled debater and he’s a man of color, so he brings something different to a debate with Kamala Harris,” a fourth attendee said. “A unique thing is, after the debate, he could then go talk on Univision about how he did. That ability to speak to voters directly in Spanish will always hurt us way more than a white guy would.”

Trujillo, for his part, blamed Democrats for putting themselves in a position that would allow Rubio to be such a major threat in a debate. “It would be great if the party of, quote, unquote, ‘inclusivity’ could speak Spanish and defend their views. I don’t know anyone on their farm team who can,” he said. “There’s been no bigger disastrous policy than their border policy. Kamala disappeared as border czar. What ever happened to immigration reform?”

However, Maria Cardona, a CNN commentator and Democrat close to the White House, struck a different tone, arguing that Harris would eat Rubio’s lunch in a televised cage match. “His biggest obstacle, when it gets down to brass tacks,” she said, “is he is going to have to defend the extremism of dirty, disgusting MAGA politics.”

Cardona noted that the White House and the Biden campaign are not afraid of Rubio as Trump’s VP pick because he betrayed his own principles on issues like immigration and doesn’t have a relevant impact on Latino communities that are outside of Florida and predominantly Mexican American. “Marco Rubio has no connection to Latino communities, for example, in the Southwest, in Arizona and Nevada, and they certainly do not see him as one of their own,” she argued.