Ever since Marco Rubio was first elected to the senate over four years ago he's carried out his career like a guy who may one day run for president, but he rarely openly talks about those ambitions. Well, at a Reuters Health Summit in Washington he openly addressed his future by saying that around this time next year he'll make a decision. That could include running for president, seeking reelection to the Senate ... or dropping out of politics altogether to head back to the private sector.
"For me, the choice in 2016 will be whether I run for re-election and serve in the Senate for another six years, whether the time has come to perhaps go to the private sector, or whether I want to run for another office like the presidency, because I feel passionately about some of the things our country needs to be doing," he told the audience.
Interestingly, around this time last year, Rubio made a similar statement.
"I really believe that if I do the best job I can in the Senate, then in a couple of years I'll be in a position to make a decision about whether I want to run for reelection, leave politics and give someone else a shot, or run for some other position," he said in a BuzzFeed interview.
Rubio has an appearance planned in New Hampshire in May. New Hampshire is the first state to hold a true presidential primary after Iowa's caucus. Rubio already had made an appearance in Iowa in 2012.
Of course, Rubio's presidential hopes have taken a hit since 2012 when he was strongly vetted to be Mitt Romney's running mate. According to Huffington Post's Pollster aggregate he currently sits in seventh place of all rumored 2016 Republican candidates. At this time last year he was considered the front runner.
Follow Miami New Times on Facebook and Twitter @MiamiNewTimes.
