Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is running for president. It wasn’t much of a secret really. The 43-year-old had been *not running* for weeks now, like many of his future competitors for the Republican nomination, and potentially beyond. On Monday morning, however, Rubio told his big-dollar fundraisers he was in, making him the soon-to-be third declared candidate on the Republican side. During a live address on Monday evening, Rubio made his candidacy officially official.
In the announcement, the first-term Senator introduced himself to a broader American audience leaning heavily on his bio as the son of Cuban immigrants.
Both of my parents were born to poor families in Cuba. After his mother died when he was 9, my father left school to go work. My mother was one of seven girls raised by a disabled father who struggled to provide for his family. When they were young, my parents had big dreams for themselves. But because they were not born into wealth or power, their future was destined to be defined by their past. So in 1956 they came here, to the one place on Earth where the aspirations of people like them could be more than just dreams. My father became a bartender. My mother a cashier, a maid and a Kmart stock clerk. They never made it big. But they were successful. Two immigrants with little money or education found stable jobs, owned a home, retired with security and gave all four of their children a life far better than their own. My parents achieved what came to be known as the American Dream.
You can read the text of the whole speech here.
