ORLANDO, Fla. – While her presidential candidate husband rallied voters in Tampa, Jeanette Rubio, wife of Marco Rubio, cheered on campaign workers dialing for votes.
Jeanette Rubio was heartily welcomed by the campaign staff and volunteers inside the mock village in a building serving as Marco Rubio’s campaign office in this central Florida city.
“Because of you, I know (Marco Rubio) is going to win,” Jeanette Rubio told the volunteers whose pitches to potential voters created a vocal buzz in the room festooned with balloons and giant signs that read “Florida is Marco Rubio country.”
The festive and light-filled campaign office belied the serious focus of the workers, several who continued working even as Jeanette Rubio walked from table-to-table introducing herself.
Marco Rubio is facing a must-win situation in his home state where Donald Trump has been shown to be leading in the polls. The state offers 99 delegates in its winner-take-all primary on Tuesday.
His backers and those in the GOP who oppose Trump are pinning hopes on a victory by Rubio in Florida and another by John Kasich in Ohio to keep Trump from winning enough delegates to be the party nominee for president. That could also allow Rubio to compete for the nomination at the GOP convention in July in Cleveland and reinvigorate his attempts at political ascension. Rubio is now one of Florida's U.S. senators.
Jeanette Rubio, who is of Colombian descent, easily moved from Spanish to English with the staff and volunteers depending on their language preference.
One campaign worker gave Jeanette Rubio a book titled “The Bunny Side of Easter.” The Rubios also have two young boys and two teenage daughters.
“I’m so thankful for this … They love for me to read to them,” Jeanette Rubio told the staffer. The book is a religious tale meant to inform children about the true meaning of Easter, which Christians celebrate as Jesus Christ’s resurrection.
