Marco Rubio scored yet another high-profile congressional endorsement of his presidential campaign Thursday as Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, lent her support.
Appearing on Fox News, Love told “Happening Now” host Jenna Lee that Rubio’s dealing with foreign policy and his ability to “inspire” others won her over, while also noting a few events Rubio did in her home state of Utah.
“I am going to be endorsing Sen. Marco Rubio,” Love told Lee. “When he came to Utah, I saw him inspire people. He had a roundtable with some of our business leaders. But he had a rally, and he talked about his family, and he talked about his love for this country. And I realized my story is very similar to his.”
“He has a positive agenda moving forward, and for the first time in a long time I felt someone who really loves this country and doesn’t take advantage of, take for granted the benefits that this country has, and also willing to put himself up and take on the responsibilities of being a citizen in this country,” Love explained.
The Utah congresswoman added to the Fox News host that the events last Friday in Paris played into the timing of her announcement.
“I think the biggest reason is because he didn’t treat Utah like a flyover state. … I’m a representative of Utah — a proud representative of Utah, and I saw him inspire people,” Love continued. “But [the Paris attack] just solidifies this for me. He’s been talking about these threats from the very beginning. He talked about the threat with ISIS. He’s very strong when it comes to foreign policy, national defense, and this is a time where we need a president in our country that is going to make sure that we are strong.”
“Ronald Reagan always used to talk about peace through strength, and right now we are seeing our enemies are getting stronger while our allies worldwide are getting weaker,” Love said. “And so we have to do everything we can to make sure that we strengthen our national defense and do we have to do everything we can to make sure that this country and the people that are living in this country are safe, and Marco is the right person to do that.”
Love now becomes the seventh member of Congress to endorse the Florida senator during November, most following Rubio’s performance in the third GOP debate. It also comes a day after Rubio locked down the support of Idaho billionaire and GOP mega-donor Frank VanderSloot. Rubio also leads the Washington Examiner‘s presidential power rankings.
