Marco Rubio makes his pitch for 2016 nomination

Marco Rubio, the Cuban-American Republican senator from Florida, confirmed on Monday that he was running for president, in a bid to make history by becoming the first Hispanic occupant of the White House.

On Monday morning, hours before a planned formal announcement, Mr Rubio told donors on a conference call that he had decided to join the growing ranks of contenders for the 2016 Republican nomination, according to one of his backers.

Mr Rubio, 43, hosted a Cuban-style barbecue with family and friends on Sunday night as he prepared for a campaign launch at Miami's Freedom Tower, where Cuban refugees were registered upon arrival in the US in the 1960s.

His announcement comes just days after Barack Obama became the first US president to meet a Cuban leader in more than half a century.

Mr Rubio plans to woo voters ?with ?his version of the "American dream". The son of working-class Cuban emigres - his father was a bartender and his mother was a hotel maid - ?he attended college on an American football scholarship before graduating from law school. He likes to say: "America owes me nothing, but I owe America everything."

His run for the White House marks another milestone in a meteoric rise that has seen the boyish looking politician rise rapidly through the political ranks in Florida and on to the national stage. Mr Rubio started as a city commissioner and became the youngest and first Cuban-American speaker of the Florida House. In the 2010 senate race, he cemented his reputation as a political force by coming from far behind to beat Charlie Crist, the sitting Republican governor.

"His political career has been nothing more than audacious gambling and winning . . . every audacious political move in his career has paid off in spades," said Fernand Amandi, a political consultant in Miami.

Alongside Ted Cruz, the firebrand Texas senator who was the first Republican to announce ?a White House run, Mr Rubio is one of the more conservative GOP contenders. In 2010, his stance on fiscal reform ?pleased the anti-establishment Tea Party, propelling him to the senate on a wave of grassroots support.

In his victory speech, Mr Rubio said: "We make a great mistake if we believe that tonight these results are somehow an embrace of the Republican party. What they are is a second chance . . . for Republicans to be what they said they were going to be not so long ago".

The father of four has cultivated an image of a family man who ?loathes spending time away from his children ?in Miami ?while he works in Washington. While few critics doubt his devotion, some view him as an opportunistic operator who is adept at reading the political winds. <

The tabular content relating to this article is not available to view. Apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused.

Mr Rubio later infuriated the Tea Party ?by ?pushing legislation ?to provide a way for 11m mostly Hispanic illegal immigrants to remain in the US. He also had to revise? a story about his family fleeing Fidel Castro's Cuba after it was pointed out that ?they came to the US before the revolution that brought Castro to power.

The Republican, who supported the Democrats until Ronald Reagan was elected, has? emerged as one of Mr Obama's loudest critics, attacking everything from the "Obamacare" health insurance law to the recent Iran nuclear deal and the president's move to reverse decades-old policy on relations with Cuba.

The 2016 Republican field is shaping up to become one of the most crowded in years. Aside from Mr Cruz and ?Rand Paul, the Kentucky libertarian senator who announced his bid last week, other probable contenders include Scott Walker, the Wisconsin governor, Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, and Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey.

One big obstacle for Mr Rubio is Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and brother of president George W Bush, who is planning to run. While many Bush supporters like Mr Rubio, some say he has insufficient experience to enter the White House.

Rubio fans respond that he would be a transformational candidate who would win over more of the increasingly important Hispanic and millennial voters even though his views on same-sex marriage differ from most young Americans. While many Rubio supporters respect Mr Bush, who speaks Spanish and is married to a Mexican, they say his life story is like that of Hillary Clinton - removed from most Americans.

"Bush has embraced the (Hispanic) culture authentically," said Armando Ibarra, a member of the executive committee of the Young Republicans group in Miami. "But he doesn't speak from the immigrant experience and cannot speak to the American dream like Marco Rubio."

Nelson Diaz, chairman of the Republican party in Miami-Dade, the largest county in Florida, said ?few candidates ?win the White House on their first attempt, but added that Mr Rubio "caught lightning in a bottle before" with his unlikely victory over Mr Crist.

Regardless of whether Mr Rubio catches lighting in a bottle in 2016, his entry into the race alongside Mr Cruz, whose father was born in Cuba, highlights demographic changes that will increasingly shape future US elections. According to the Pew Research Center, more than 25m Latinos are eligible to vote, which at 11 per cent of the electorate marks a rise of 3.9m since 2010.

Jorge Luis Lopez, a prominent Republican lobbyist and backer of Mr Rubio, plans to attend the announcement at the Freedom Tower, returning to the historic building more than four decades since he arrived there from Cuba with his family.

"I was there as a little boy. I sat on the steps. Now I get to be there and watch a Cuban-American say 'I would like to be president of the United States; won't you help me?'"

Twitter: @DimiSevastopulo

[email protected]

© The Financial Times Limited 2015. All rights reserved.
FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd.
Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.
Euro2day.gr is solely responsible for providing this translation and the Financial Times Limited does not accept any liability for the accuracy or quality of the translation