Letter to the editor: Rubio for president in 2028

OPINION:

Barack Obama gave a speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention that paved the way to his becoming the 44th U.S. president.

Similarly, Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave a speech on Oct. 7 in Athens that should ease his path to becoming the 2028 Republican nominee and the 48th U.S. president.

Mr. Rubio’s speech was polished and uplifting in a Western Europe that has lately been plagued by decay, illegal immigration and pessimism. He said: “The ideal of many ideologies in our time has, frankly, become a world of perfect safety, a world devoid of risk or failure, where neither the glory of victory, nor the shame of defeat. … We hold the most exceptional things among us hostage to the average, the ordinary, the mediocre.” Amen.

Many assume that Vice President J.D. Vance will lead the 2028 Republican ticket, but the only provision in the U.S. Constitution for an automatic transfer of power is for the death of a sitting president, per the 25th Amendment. Only six vice presidents have ever been directly elected to the U.S. presidency.

Let us examine the qualifications of Messrs. Rubio and Vance.

Mr. Rubio was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2000 and was its speaker from 2006 to 2008. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010 and ran for president in 2015. He was elected to a second term in the Senate in 2016 and reelected to a third term in 2022.

In November 2024, President Trump nominated him for secretary of state and the Senate unanimously confirmed him. In May 2025, he also became acting national security adviser, acting archivist of the U.S. and acting USAID administrator.

Mr. Vance was elected to the Senate from Ohio in 2022, and Mr. Trump selected him as his vice president in 2024.

There is no question about it: When you compare the two, Mr. Rubio comes out on top.

The traditional motto of the United States is “E pluribus unum,” or “Out of many, one.” The Oval Office has never had a Hispanic American occupant. I cannot think of a better way to symbolize to the 71 million Hispanic Americans that they are part of the Republican tent than selecting Marco Rubio to lead the 2028 Republican ticket.

JORGE E. PONCE

Trinity, Florida