जीवनी

Received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Florida in 1993 and a J.D. degree cum laude from the University of Miami School of Law in 1996.

U.S. Senate Small Business Committee chairman.

His wife, Jeanette, is a former Miami Dolphins cheerleader and is of Colombian descent.

Born in Miami, to Cuban parents who moved to the U.S. in 1956 as economic migrants.

Republican candidate for U.S. Senate seat vacated by Mel Martinez.

There were some in politics who believed that all you had to do was to be the alternative to the incumbent and you would win. But I never believed in that. I've always believed that you were better on offense that you were on defense. You were much better for being for something than against someone.

I don't know how inspiring I am to people on the left, but I'm not a big believer in transformative people in politics. There are people that have an historic opportunity to speak the truth and take on issues of historic moment. That's not something you can choose to be. That's something that just happens and falls on your lap, usually during periods of extreme trial. And I don't think any of us want to experience extreme trial for our country.

Ultimately, the dignity that my grandfather and father had was showing up every day and providing for their families. The challenges they faced were very basic. A tough day for me is if I lose an election or get a bad story in the paper. A tough day for my dad was they might be late on the rent. A tough day for my grandfather might have meant his daughters didn't eat.

Usually when you try to accomplish something you're almost never judged kindly by your contemporaries. I think that's true for all great leaders. If you look back, they were almost all significantly unpopular or had tremendous opposition they faced because of what they were trying to do.

I think the bigger challenge that we face, and that we continue to face, is that we have not done a good enough job of communicating to people what conservatism is. In fact, we've allowed a myth to take hold in the minds of some that conservatism is about helping the people who have 'made it' and not about helping the people who are trying to make it. I think we have a very compelling argument, which happens to be true: the people who have made it - billionaires and multi-billion dollar corporations - they may not like big government but they can afford to deal with it. They can hire the best lawyers in America and try to figure out the loopholes and the best lobbyists to create them.