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Today, senators will hold a confirmation hearing for their own colleague, Florida Republican Marco Rubio. He's President-elect Trump's nominee for secretary of state. Rubio would be the country's first Latino in the role, if confirmed, since its creation more than 200 years ago. NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales reports.
CLAUDIA GRISALES, BYLINE: More than 25 years ago, law school graduate Marco Rubio paid a cold call visit to the home of a legendary political figure in West Miami. Rubio had worked for a who's who in Florida politics but was ready to make his own bid as a city commissioner.
REBECA SOSA: He says, my name is Marco Rubio, and I want to run for office. Will you help me?
GRISALES: That's former West Miami Mayor Rebeca Sosa, who was immediately impressed.
SOSA: And after I spoke to him the next day, we were walking door-to-door.
GRISALES: Rubio won that election two months later, starting on a path that took him to the Florida House and, in 2011, the U.S. Senate. That was no surprise to Florida Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez, who ran in similar political circles with Rubio.
CARLOS GIMENEZ: The first time I ever saw him when he gave a speech, and after that speech, I went to my campaign manager and I said, he has it - it.
GRISALES: But not everyone agreed that Rubio had it. Critics panned his disastrous rigid performance in a presidential debate in 2016 that earned him the nickname MarcoBot. President-elect Donald Trump, on his way to winning his first election to the White House, took aim at Rubio.
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DONALD TRUMP: They hate little Marco Rubio so much. It's true.
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GRISALES: However, supporters say what the public did not see behind the scenes was Rubio putting aside the attacks, shaking hands with Trump and making him an unlikely ally.
GIMENEZ: Yeah, that's right. He was smart enough to know that all that stuff was politics.
GRISALES: Now, Gimenez says there won't be much daylight between the two when it comes to foreign diplomacy. He and others argue Rubio's charisma, wicked sense of humor, competitiveness and humble beginnings are what fuel his approach to politics. Here's the dean of the Florida Congressional Delegation, Republican Mario Diaz-Balart
MARIO DIAZ-BALART: His father was a bartender. His mother was a maid. And they taught him the value of hard work, of patriotism.
GRISALES: The two served alongside each other in the Florida state House. Diaz-Balart also says Rubio's identity as husband and father of four is core to his approach to politics.
DIAZ-BALART: Marco Rubio not only exemplifies the American dream. I would tell you that he exemplifies the Republican Party.
GRISALES: Allies say Rubio's competitiveness and drive are rooted in early dreams of playing professional football. They connected that background to the way he works as a senator, like his aggressive stance against dictators in Latin America and taking China and Iran to task. Rubio, while rushing to the Senate to vote on legislation, laughed off the death threats he received in 2017 over his criticism of the Venezuelan regime. But he gets quite serious when asked about his next potential role.
MARCO RUBIO: My job is to execute the president's foreign policy, and that's what we're going to do and with the interest of America first and foremost.
GRISALES: As a Cuban American, allies argue he'll pay attention to the Western Hemisphere in ways that hasn't happened before. Even some Democrats are excited about his nomination, like former Senate intelligence chairman Mark Warner.
MARK WARNER: We don't always agree, but I think he understands the importance of American leadership in the world. I think he's thoughtful, and I look forward to supporting him.
GRISALES: As the Senate considers a slate of controversial Trump nominees, Rubio's bipartisan support makes him stand out as an exception.
Claudia Grisales, NPR News, the Capitol.
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