ATLANTA—Florida Sen. Marco Rubio sought to differentiate himself from the nine other GOP presidential candidates storming the stage this weekend at the RedState Gathering of conservative activists by focusing on the economy and family values. He focused his speech on how America will look different five years from now, and noted how much it had changed in recent years past.
Rubio claimed he decided to run for president for the same reason he pursued a senate seat — because he wanted future generations to have the same opportunities he has had.
“Every country in the world has rich people, every country in the world has famous people,” Rubio said, seemingly offering a subtle barb against GOP front-runner Donal Trump. “But only America has people that did what my parents did and what your parents did. … What unites us as a people is we are all but a generation or two removed from someone who made our future the purpose of their lives.”
The senator focused on the rapidly changing economy to bolster his argument that the next GOP nominee will need to talk about the future rather than on ideas of what has worked in the past.
“This is a different economy,” Rubio said. “And it’s not just different, it’s changing faster than the economy has ever changed. When the telephone was invented it took it 75 years to reach 100 million users; it took Instagram two years to reach 100 million users.”
Rubio’s emphasis on his modest upbringing went over well with the crowd of southern conservatives who cheered the loudest for his remarks about his family. He once again referenced the “debt to this country that I can never repay.”
“They say, ‘you don’t come from privilege.’ I say, ‘Oh yes I do,’ ” he added. “I was raised by two parents who were married to each other, loved us, and raised us in a strong and stable home.”
While Rubio consistently polls among the top ten Republicans running for higher office, he also sought to remind voters that he views himself as an underdog.
“Six years ago when I appeared before RedState, I was an extraordinary underdog,” Rubio said. “The only people that thought I would win [a senate seat] all lived in my home — four of them under the age of ten. And everything I knew about politics told me you run, you lose. … But I ran anyway.”
And he won. Rubio hopes to replicate his success in 2016.
