Rubio bets the GOP ready for his younger face
There is nothing particularly flashy about the endorsements that have been rolling in for Sen. Marco Rubio lately: a handful of Republican members of Congress, mostly junior and not terribly influential.
But upon closer inspection, there is something they share. Like Rubio, almost all are young.
They include Mia Love of Utah, 39, a freshman representative and the only black Republican woman in Congress; Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington, who was first elected to the House five years ago when she was only 31; and Cory Gardner of Colorado, who at 41 is the second-youngest member of the Senate.
Age, or the conspicuous lack of it, is something that infuses almost every element of the Rubio campaign — from the punch lines he delivers on the stump (“I’m 44, but I feel 45,” one well-worn joke goes), to the under-40 workers who make up the vast majority of his staff, to the shots he takes at his opponents, like “Yesterday’s over,” that are supposed to make them seem old.
By running a campaign that emphasizes his youth and appeal as a figure of generational change, Rubio, in essence, is trying to reverse the roles Democrats and Republicans have played in presidential elections for the last generation.
And he is trying to scramble the identity politics have taken shape within both parties, particularly after a 47-yearold Barack Obama excited young voters in 2008 with his own message that it was time for dramatic change in Washington.
In their efforts to disparage Hillary Rodham Clinton, for example, Rubio campaign researchers have combed over hours of footage searching for clips that make her sound like a relic.
One discovery: Clinton in New Hampshire recently compared taking questions from the audience to “The Gong Show,” a game show popular in the 1970s.
It is a difficult line to walk, especially for a politician who is being attacked as precocious, impatient and too busy furthering his presidential ambitions to show up to work in Washington.
Rubio’s challenge is made more daunting by the fact that he is trying to win the nomination of a party that has grown older, whiter and more conservative.
Seeking to become the first Hispanic president, he is the youngest person in the Republican field this year.