Jim DeMint
United States Senator from South Carolina
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2005 Serving with Lindsey Graham
Preceded by	Ernest Hollings
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina's 4th district
In office January 3, 1999 – January 3, 2005
Preceded by	Bob Inglis
Succeeded by	Bob Inglis
Personal details
Born	James Warren DeMint (1951-09-02) September 2, 1951 (age 60) Greenville, South Carolina
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Debbie DeMint
Residence	Greenville, South Carolina
Alma mater	University of Tennessee (B.A.) Clemson University (M.B.A.)
Occupation	Marketing consultant
Religion	Presbyterian (PCA)
Website	www.demint.senate.gov

James Warren "Jim" DeMint (born September 2, 1951) is the junior United States Senator from South Carolina, serving since 2005. He is a member of the Republican Party and a leading member in the Tea Party movement.^[1][2] He previously served as the United States Representative for South Carolina's 4th congressional district from 1999 to 2005.

Early life and education[link]

DeMint was born in Greenville, South Carolina, one of four children. His parents, Betty W. (née Rawlings) and Thomas Eugene DeMint,^[3] divorced when he was five years old.^[4] Following the divorce, Betty DeMint operated a dance studio out of the family's home.^[5][6]

DeMint was educated at Christ Church Episcopal School and Wade Hampton High School in Greenville. DeMint played drums for a cover band called Salt & Pepper.^[7] He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee, where he was a part of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, and received a MBA from Clemson University.

Business career[link]

DeMint worked in the field of market research. In 1983 he founded The Demint Group, a research firm based in Greenville, and ran the company until 1998 when he entered Congress.^[6]

U. S. Representative[link]

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U.S. Senate[link]

Committee assignments[link]

• Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
  • Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on Financial Institutions
• Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
  • Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet
  • Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation, and Export Promotion
  • Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance
  • Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security
• Committee on Foreign Relations
  • Subcommittee on African Affairs
  • Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Democracy and Human Rights
  • Subcommittee on European Affairs (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs and International Environmental Protection
• Joint Economic Committee
• Impeachment Trial Committee on the Articles against Judge G. Thomas Porteous, Jr.^[8]

Caucus memberships[link]

• Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus
• International Conservation Caucus
• Tea Party Caucus

Political positions[link]

This article is incomplete. Please help to improve the article, or discuss the issue on the talk page. (March 2011)

• DeMint is ranked by The National Journal as one of the most conservative members of the Senate.^[9] Salon.com has called him "perhaps the most conservative member of the Senate."^[10]
• DeMint opposes spending increases of the federal government. He opposed federal bailouts for banks and automobile corporations.^[11][12]
• DeMint favors a balanced-budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution.^[13]
• Senator DeMint has been a consistent supporter of organized and led school prayer and has introduced legislation that would allow schools to display banners such as one stating "God Bless America".^[14]
• DeMint opposes abortion, including in cases of rape and incest. He approves of abortion only when the mother's life is in danger.^[14][15]
• DeMint favors requiring all illegal immigrants in the United States to either return to their home countries or apply for legal residency. He is in favor of establishing the English language as the country's official language.^[14]

Jim DeMint speaking at rally for United States Senate candidate Rand Paul in October 2010

• Demint opposed the NATO intervention into Kosovo but supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq.^[16] He is an advisor to the Atlantic Bridge.^[17]
• DeMint visited Honduras in 2009 and met with de facto president Roberto Micheletti, a meeting that was opposed by US President Barack Obama's administration. The State Department officially viewed ousted president Manuel Zelaya as the legitimately elected president.^[18]
• Following an attempted terrorist attack on December 25, 2009, DeMint accused President Barack Obama of lacking focus on terrorism since taking office and of failing to appoint a head of the Transportation Security Administration.^[19]
• DeMint opposed President Barack Obama's health reform legislation; he voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in December 2009,^[20] and he voted against the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.^[21]

Political campaigns[link]

1998 through 2002[link]

In 1998, Fourth District Congressman Bob Inglis kept his promise to serve only three terms, by running against Senator Fritz Hollings. DeMint won the Republican primary for the district, which includes Greenville and Spartanburg. He then went on to win the general election in November. The district is considered the most Republican in the state, and he did not face a serious or well-funded Democratic opponent in 1998 or in his two re-election campaigns in 2000 and 2002.^{[citation needed]}

2004[link]

DeMint declared his candidacy for the Senate on December 12, 2002, after Hollings announced that he would retire after the 2004 elections. DeMint was supposedly the White House's preferred candidate in the Republican primary.

In the Republican primary on June 8, 2004, DeMint placed a distant second, 18 percentage points behind former governor David Beasley. DeMint won the runoff handily, however.

DeMint then faced Democratic state education superintendent Inez Tenenbaum in the November general election. DeMint led Tenenbaum through much of the campaign and ultimately defeated her by 9.6 percentage points. DeMint's win meant that South Carolina was represented by two Republican Senators for the first time since Reconstruction, when Thomas J. Robertson and John J. Patterson served together as Senators.

DeMint stirred controversy during debates with Tenenbaum when he stated his belief that openly gay people should not be allowed to teach in public schools. When questioned by reporters, DeMint also stated that single mothers who live with their boyfriends should similarly be excluded from being educators.^[22][23] He later apologized for making the remarks, saying they were "distracting from the main issues of the debate." He also noted that these were opinions based on his personal values, not issues he would or could deal with as a member of Congress.^[24] In a 2008 interview, he said that while government does not have the right to restrict homosexuality, it also should not encourage it through legalizing same-sex marriage, due to the "costly secondary consequences" to society from the prevalence of certain diseases among homosexuals.^[25]

2010[link]

DeMint won re-nomination in the Republican Party primary. Democratic Party opponent Alvin Greene won an upset primary victory over Vic Rawl, who was heavily favored. Due to various electoral discrepancies, Greene received scrutiny from Democratic Party officials, with some calling for Greene to withdraw or be replaced.^[26] DeMint consistently led Greene by more than 30 points throughout the campaign and won reelection by a landslide.

DeMint campaigning in Erlanger, Kentucky with Congressman Ron Paul of Texas for Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Congressman Geoff Davis of Kentucky in 2010.

Prior to the 2010 elections, DeMint founded the Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF), a political action committee that is "dedicated to electing strong conservatives to the United States Senate" and that is associated with the Tea Party movement.^[27][28][29] As of February 2011, DeMint continued to serve as Chair of SCF, which states that it raised $9.1 million toward the 2010 U.S. Senate elections and which endorsed successful first-time Senate candidates Pat Toomey, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Ron Johnson, Marco Rubio .^[30] DeMint also supported Joe Miller of Alaska through the SCF. Miller was an attorney and former federal magistrate and the Tea Party's candidate opposing Lisa Murkowski the incumbent senator in the Alaska primary. Miller won in a close election, however Murkowski ran as a write in candidate and won the electionby 39.1% to Miller's 35.1% and by a popular vote of 101,091 to 90,839 respectively.

DeMint plans to retire in 2016 after serving his second term.^[31]

On October 1, 2010, DeMint, in comments that echoed what he had said in 2004, told a rally of his supporters that openly homosexual and unmarried sexually active people should not be teachers.^[32] In response, the National Organization for Women, the National Education Association, the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign, GOProud, a GOP group, and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force asked for Demint’s apology.^[22][33]

In March 2010, About.com, owned by The New York Times Company, named DeMint one of the top 20 conservatives to follow on Twitter.^[34]

Works[link]

• Jim DeMint (2009-07). Saving Freedom: We Can Stop America's Slide Into Socialism. Fidelis. ISBN 978-0-8054-4957-0. http://books.google.com/?id=9E3z8VLeW8cC. 
• Jim DeMint (2011-07-04). The Great American Awakening: Two Years that Changed America, Washington, and Me. B&H Books. ISBN 978-1-4336-7279-8. http://books.google.com/?id=I4Q-V25VlrUC. 

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official U.S. Senate website for DeMint
• Official DeMint Senate campaign website
• Biography at WhoRunsGov.com at The Washington Post
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Congressional profile at GovTrack
• Congressional profile at OpenCongress
• Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs
• Appearances at the Internet Movie Database
• Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Works by or about Jim DeMint in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Profile at SourceWatch

v t e United States Senators from South Carolina Class 2 P. Butler Hunter Pinckney Sumter Taylor W. Smith R. Hayne Calhoun Huger Calhoun Elmore Barnwell Rhett De Saussure Evans A. Hayne Chesnut Robertson M. Butler Tillman Benet Pollock Dial Blease Byrnes Lumpkin Peace Maybank Daniel Thurmond Wofford Thurmond Graham Class 3 Izard Read Colhoun P. Butler Gaillard Harper W. Smith Miller Preston McDuffie A. Butler Hammond Sawyer Patterson Hampton Irby Earle McLaurin Latimer Gary E. Smith Hall Johnston Russell Hollings DeMint

Laura Ingraham
Laura Ingraham in October 2011.
Born	Laura Anne Ingraham (1964-06-19) June 19, 1964 (age 48) Glastonbury, Connecticut, U.S.
Residence	Washington, D.C.
Nationality	American
Education	Dartmouth College (A.B., 1984) University of Virginia School of Law (J.D., 1991)
Occupation	Radio personality
Religion	Roman Catholic
Children	Maria Caroline (adopted 2008 from Guatemala) Michael Dmitri Nikolai
Website
lauraingraham.com
Notes [1]

Laura Anne Ingraham (born June 19, 1964) is an American radio host, author, and conservative political commentator. Her nationally syndicated talk show, The Laura Ingraham Show, airs throughout the United States on Talk Radio Network.

Career[link]

Ingraham grew up in a middle-class family in Glastonbury, Connecticut ^[2] and graduated from Glastonbury High School, in 1981.

Ingraham earned a bachelor's degree at Dartmouth College, in 1985, and a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree at the University of Virginia School of Law, in 1991. As a Dartmouth undergraduate, she was a staff member of the independent conservative newspaper, The Dartmouth Review. In her senior year, she was the newspaper's editor-in-chief,^[3] its first female editor.^[2] She wrote a few controversial articles during her tenure, notably an article alleging racist and unprofessional behavior by a Dartmouth music professor Bill Cole. Cole responded by harassing Ingraham's dormitory roommate and inciting anger against her in one of his classes. Cole later sued Ingraham for $2.4 million; the college paid for his lawyer. He retracted the lawsuit in 1985 without ever naming an inaccuracy in Ingraham's article.^[4]

She also authored a piece characterizing a campus gay rights group as "cheerleaders for latent campus Sodomites". She also secretly tape recorded the organization's meetings, and sent copies to the participants' parents.^[5][6] Jeffrey Hart, the faculty adviser for The Dartmouth Review, described Ingraham as having "the most extreme antihomosexual views imaginable," and noted that "she went so far as to avoid a local eatery where she feared the waiters were homosexual and might touch her silverware or spit on her food, exposing her to AIDS."^[7] In 1997, Ingraham wrote an essay in the Washington Post in which she stated that she changed her views after witnessing "the dignity, fidelity and courage" with which her gay brother Curtis and his late companion coped with AIDS.^[8] Ingraham regrets the "callous rhetoric" of her youth, and now supports some legal protections for homosexuals.^[8]

In the late 1980s, Ingraham worked as a speechwriter in the Ronald Reagan administration for the Domestic Policy advisor. She also briefly served as editor of The Prospect, the magazine issued by Concerned Alumni of Princeton. After law school, in 1991, she served as a law clerk for Judge Ralph K. Winter, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York and subsequently clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She then worked as an attorney at the New York-based law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.^[9]

In 1996, she and Jay P. Lefkowitz organized the first Dark Ages Weekend in response to the New Year's Renaissance Weekend of the Democrats.^[10]

Ingraham has had two stints as a cable television host. In the late 1990s, she became a CBS commentator and hosted the MSNBC program Watch It! Several years later, Ingraham began openly campaigning for another cable television show on her radio program. She finally got her wish in 2008, when Fox News Channel gave her a three-week trial run for a new show entitled Just In.^[11][12] She appeared on a 1995 cover of The New York Times Magazine for an article about rising young conservatives, in which she joked about subjugating Third World countries.^[13]

She also appeared on the August 3, 2010, episode of The Colbert Report, where Stephen Colbert implied that she had integrated "hideous, hackneyed racial stereotypes" into her book The Obama Diaries. In reply, she suggested that a word Colbert had previously used to label her, banshee, which is of Irish origin (bean sidhe, meaning 'woman of the Sidhe'), also contained racial overtones, suggesting that it may be offensive to Native Americans.^[14] Her latest book is titled Of Thee I Zing and was released on July 12, 2011.

Ingraham suiting up for a VIP flight as a guest of the U.S. Navy at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia.

Radio show host[link]

Ingraham launched The Laura Ingraham Show in April 2001, which is heard on 306 stations and on XM Satellite Radio. The show was originally syndicated by Infinity's (now CBS's) Westwood One, but is now syndicated by Talk Radio Network. Ingraham is also the official guest host of The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel and a weekly contributor with her segment, "The Ingraham Angle."

In one of her most famous incidents, on Election Day 2006 Ingraham encouraged listeners to jam the phone line of a toll-free Democratic Party service for reporting voting problems. No tangible consequences came of it.^[2]

In 2012, Laura Ingraham was rated as the No. 5 radio show in America, by Talkers Magazine.^[15]

Books[link]

• The Hillary Trap: Looking for Power in All the Wrong Places, first published June 2000, while the author was a talk show host on MSNBC, was updated and reissued in paperback December 25, 2005. It analyzes and reinterprets Hillary Clinton as a faux feminist,^[16] whose "liberal feminism has created a culture that rewards dependency, encourages fragmentation, undermines families, and celebrates victimhood".^[17]

• Shut Up & Sing: How Elites from Hollywood, Politics, and the UN Are Subverting America, published October 25, 2003, decries liberal "elites" in politics, the media, academia, arts and entertainment, business, and international organizations, on behalf of "disrespected" Middle Americans, whom the author praises as "the kind of people who are the lifeblood of healthy democratic societies".^[18]

• Power to the People, a New York Times number one best seller,^[19][20] published September 11, 2007, focuses on what Ingraham calls the "pornification" of America and stresses the importance of popular participation in culture, promoting conservative values in family life, education and patriotism.^[21]

• The Obama Diaries, a New York Times number one best seller,^[22] published July 13, 2010. The book is a fictional collection of diary entries purportedly made by Barack Obama, which the author uses satirically to criticize Mr. Obama, his family and his administration.^[23]

• Of Thee I Zing, a New York Times best seller,^[24] published July 12, 2011. The book is a collection of humorous anecdotes meant to point out the decline of American culture, from muffin tops to body shots.^[25]

Personal[link]

Ingraham had become estranged from her brother, Curtis, for a number of years, but they reconciled as young adults. On February 23, 1997, she had an op-ed published in the Washington Post where she spoke of her maturing:

"In the ten years since I learned my brother Curtis was gay my views and rhetoric about homosexuality have been tempered, because I have seen him and his companion Richard lead their lives with dignity, fidelity and courage."

She was once engaged to conservative author and fellow Dartmouth alumnus Dinesh D'Souza. She also has dated former New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert Torricelli.^[26] In April 2005, she announced that she was engaged to businessman James V. Reyes, with a wedding planned in May or June 2005. On April 26, 2005, she announced that she had undergone breast cancer surgery. On May 11, 2005, Ingraham told listeners that her engagement to Reyes was canceled, citing issues regarding her diagnosis with breast cancer. Despite the breakup, she maintained that the two remain good friends and had told listeners, in 2006, that she was in good health.^[27]

She is a convert to Catholicism.^[28]

In May 2008, Ingraham adopted a young girl from Guatemala, whom she has named Maria Caroline.^[29] In July 2009 she adopted a 13-month-old boy, Michael Dmitri, and two years later in June 2011 she announced the adoption of her third child, 13-month-old Nikolai Peter. Both of the boys were from Russia, a nation where Ingraham had spent considerable time earlier.^[30]

Activism[link]

Code Red Rally[link]

On December 8, 2009, Ingraham broadcast her support of a rally protesting the 2009 health care reform bill that was to be held in Washington, D.C. at the U.S. Capitol on December 15, 2009.^[31]

See also[link]

conservatism portal

• List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Laura Ingraham

• Official website
• Laura Ingraham at NNDB
• Photos of Ingraham in Iraq, February 2006, at LauraIngraham.com
• C-SPAN Q&A interview with Ingraham, December 11, 2005

Marco Rubio
United States Senator from Florida
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2011 Serving with Bill Nelson
Preceded by	George LeMieux
Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives
In office January 2, 2007 – January 2, 2009
Preceded by	Allan Bense
Succeeded by	Ray Sansom
Member of the Florida House of Representatives from the 111th District
In office January 25, 2000 – January 2, 2009
Preceded by	Carlos Valdes
Succeeded by	Erik Fresen
Personal details
Born	Marco Antonio Rubio (1971-05-28) May 28, 1971 (age 41) Miami, Florida
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Jeanette Dousdebes
Children	4
Alma mater	University of Florida (B.A.) University of Miami (J.D.)
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Roman Catholic[1]
Website	www.rubio.senate.gov

Marco Antonio Rubio (born May 28, 1971) is the junior United States Senator from Florida, serving since January 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives (2007–2009).

Born to Cuban immigrants, Rubio was raised in Miami, Florida, and Las Vegas, Nevada. He attended Tarkio College and Santa Fe Community College before graduating from the University of Florida. He earned his J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law in 1996 while interning for U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. In the late 1990s he served as a City Commissioner for West Miami. Rubio was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2000, representing the 111th House district. He was elected Speaker in November 2006.

Rubio announced a run for U.S. Senate in May 2009 after incumbent Republican Mel Martinez resigned. Initially trailing by double-digits against the incumbent Republican Governor Charlie Crist, Rubio eventually surpassed him in polling for the Republican nomination. Rubio won the Republican nomination after Crist opted instead for an independent run. In a three-way split against Crist and Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek, Rubio won the general election in November 2010 by a 19-point margin.

Rubio has been called the "crown prince" of the Tea Party movement.^[2][3] He has been mentioned as a potential choice for the Republican vice presidential nomination in 2012 but has said he is not interested.^[4]

Early life, education, and early political career[link]

Rubio was born in Miami, Florida,^[5] the second son and third child of Mario Rubio and Oria Garcia. His parents were Cubans who had emigrated to the United States in 1956 and were later naturalized as U.S. citizens in 1975.^[6] Rubio's family was Catholic, but from age 8 to age 11, he and his family attended The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while they lived in Las Vegas. He received his first communion as a Catholic in 1984, before moving back to Miami with his family a year later. He was confirmed and married in the Catholic Church.^{[7][1][8][9][10]}

Rubio attended South Miami Senior High School and graduated in 1989. He then attended Tarkio College for one year on a football scholarship from 1989 to 1990, before enrolling at Santa Fe Community College (now Santa Fe College). He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Florida in 1993, and his J.D. degree cum laude from the University of Miami School of Law in 1996.^[11]

While studying law, he interned for U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.^[12] Marco Rubio served as a City Commissioner for West Miami before being elected to the Florida legislature.^[13]

Florida House of Representatives (2000–2009)[link]

Rubio was elected to the Florida House of Representatives for the 111th district in a special election on January 25, 2000. He won each of his re-election bids.^[14] In November 2006, he was elected Speaker of the Florida House for the 2007–09 term.

He is the author of the book 100 Innovative Ideas for Florida's Future. This book included information that Rubio compiled while traveling around the state and talking with citizens. This was done through what Rubio calls "Idearaisers". Many of the issues that he pushed for in his first year as speaker came from ideas in this book.^[15] During 2007, Marco Rubio championed a major overhaul of the Florida tax system, arguing it would reduce property taxes and decrease the size of government.^[16]

During his tenure serving as Speaker of the Florida House, Rubio shared his residence with another Florida State Representative, David Rivera. The two men co-owned a home together in Tallahassee, which later fell into foreclosure after deferring months of mortgage payments. This issue surfaced in June 2010, during Rubio's run for the US Senate but was considered resolved according to Rubio's spokesman.^[17]

U.S. Senate (2011–present)[link]

2010 election[link]

Rubio speaking at CPAC in February 2010.

On May 5, 2009, Rubio announced on his website that he planned to run for the United States Senate in 2010 for the Republican seat being vacated by Sen. Mel Martinez, who had resigned and been replaced by George LeMieux. Prior to the announcement, he had been meeting with fundraisers and supporters throughout the state.^[18] Initially trailing by double-digits against the incumbent Governor of his own party, Charlie Crist, Rubio eventually surpassed Crist in polling for the Republican nomination.^[19][20]

On April 28, 2010, Crist announced he would be running as an independent, effectively ceding the Republican nomination to Rubio.^[21] Several of Crist's top fundraisers, as well as Republican leadership, refused^[22][23] to support Crist after Rubio won the Republican nomination for Senate.^[24]

On November 2, 2010, Marco Rubio won the senatorial election with 48.9% of the vote to Crist's 29.7% and Democrat Kendrick Meek's 20.1%.^[25] On May 20, 2011, Marco Rubio visited Puerto Rico's governor, Luis Fortuño, and made a statement of wanting to "represent the Puerto Ricans" since he already felt he owed those who had voted for him in the Florida election.^[26]

Following his victory in the elections, Rubio soon became the subject of speculation as a potential GOP candidate for the presidential election of 2012.^[27][28] Rubio stated shortly after taking office that he has no interest in running for president or vice president in 2012.^[29]

Tenure[link]

Upon taking office, Rubio hired Cesar Conda, former lobbyist and "top domestic policy adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney during the first two years of the Bush administration" as his Chief of Staff.^[30]

Rubio is also a member of the Congressional Hispanic Conference.^{[citation needed]}

Rubio cosponsored a resolution, which was passed, to declare September as National Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Month.^[31]

Rubio's amendment, co-sponsored by Joe Manchin (D – WV), to allow employers to be exempted from newly mandated coverage for contraception, based on religious or moral grounds by such employers, did not pass the Senate.^[32] The Obama White House singled out Rubio from the many co-sponsors of the similar Roy Blunt amendment, which also failed to pass the Senate.^[33]

Committee assignments[link]

• Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
  • Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet
  • Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard
  • Subcommittee on Science and Space
  • Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security
• Committee on Foreign Relations
  • Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps and Narcotics Affairs (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs
  • Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs
  • Subcommittee on International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs, and International Environmental Protection
• Select Committee on Intelligence
• Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

Personal life[link]

Rubio married Jeanette Dousdebes, a former Miami Dolphins cheerleader, in 1997. She is of Colombian descent, and together they have four children named Amanda, Daniella, Anthony, and Dominic.^[34] Rubio and his family live in West Miami, Florida.^[1][35] Rubio attends Catholic Mass as well as a Southern Baptist church in West Kendall, Florida.^[36][8][37]

"Son of exiles" controversy[link]

In October 2011, the St. Petersburg Times and The Washington Post reported that Rubio's previous statements that his parents were forced to leave Cuba in 1959, after Fidel Castro came to power, were incorrect as they had in fact left Cuba in 1956 during the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. According to The Washington Post, Rubio's "embellishments" resonate with many voters in Florida, who would not be as impressed by his family being economic migrants seeking a better life in the U.S. instead of political refugees from a communist regime.^[6] Rubio responded, "The real essence of my family’s story is not about the date my parents first entered the United States. Or whether they traveled back and forth between the two nations. Or even the date they left Fidel Castro’s Cuba forever and permanently settled here."^[38][39][40] According to a number of commentators within the Cuban exile community in Miami, Rubio is justified to continue to characterize himself as a son of exiles.^[40][41]

Electoral history[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Marco Rubio

	Biography portal
	Florida portal
	Politics portal

• Senator Marco Rubio official U.S. Senate website
• Marco Rubio for U.S. Senate official campaign site
• Biography at WhoRunsGov.com at The Washington Post
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Congressional profile at GovTrack
• Congressional profile at OpenCongress
• Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at the National Institute for Money in State Politics
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs
• Appearances at the Internet Movie Database
• Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Collected news and commentary at The Guardian

v t e United States Senators from Florida Class 1 Yulee Mallory, Sr. Welch Gilbert Jones Pasco Taliaferro N. Bryan Trammell Loftin Andrews Holland Chiles Mack Nelson Class 3 Westcott Morton Yulee Osborn Conover Call Mallory, Jr. W. Bryan Milton Fletcher Hill Pepper Smathers Gurney Stone Hawkins Graham Martinez LeMieux Rubio

v t e Current statewide political officials of Florida U.S. Senators Bill Nelson Marco Rubio State government Rick Scott, Governor Jennifer Carroll, Lieutenant Governor Jeff Atwater, Chief Financial Officer Pam Bondi, Attorney General Adam Putnam, Commissioner of Agriculture Senate Mike Haridopolos, President Andy Gardiner, Majority Leader Nan Rich, Minority Leader House Dean Cannon, Speaker Carlos Lopez-Cantera, Majority Leader Ronald Saunders, Minority Leader Supreme Court (appointed) Charles T. Canady, Chief Justice Barbara Pariente R. Fred Lewis Peggy Quince Ricky Polston Jorge Labarga James E.C. Perry AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY