Republican Response to the State of the Union

Impact

Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) will deliver the Republican Party's official response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday, both in English and Spanish. Rubio, who was elected Florida's junior senator during the 2010 Tea Party wave that recovered the House of Representatives for Republicans, is also rumored as a potential 2016 presidential candidate — a prospect welcomed by many in the GOP after losing badly to Obama in 2012 among Hispanic voters (Rubio's parents are Cuban and the senator is part of the bipartisan "Gang of 8" that's advancing a proposal for immigration reform in the Senate).