Marco Rubio decided to skip the convention last summer, and when he announced he was running for reelection a few weeks later, many thought that perhaps it was because of a glimmer of hope that he might consider the presidency in 2020.
Mr. Rubio, in announcing his reelection bid to a second term in Florida this month, said his No. 1 priority this election is trying to elect a Republican president and Senate, and, in fact, two of his Republican rivals, Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo and Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, announced their candidacies at the convention.
This is, at least in part, because Mr. Rubio is one of the few Latino leaders in Washington who has a chance of winning the presidency, according to a Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll conducted Sept. 25-28.
Support for Mr. Rubio, who is Hispanic, was up three points over President Trump in September and was up eight points over Hillary Clinton, with 17 percent of those polled supporting him as the Democratic presidential nominee. Only three candidates — Mr. Trump, Mr. Pompeo and Mrs. Blackburn — are given a higher favorability rating than Mr. Rubio, though Mrs. Clinton’s was only just slightly lower than hers.
