Rubio: GOP must rebrand as party of ‘multiethnic, multiracial, working-class’ voters

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in an interview released Wednesday that the Republican Party must change by connecting more with working-class voters as well as people of color. 

“The future of the party is based on a multiethnic, multiracial, working-class coalition,” Rubio said in an interview with Alayna Treene of Axios.

Rubio, who was defeated by President Trump in the 2016 GOP presidential primary, has positioned himself to be at the center of the debate over how the party evolves going forward. 

He has signaled he sees the GOP’s future as tied to the values of working-class voters, who have turned out in force for Trump. He has also signaled the GOP must appeal to a racially diverse electorate.

Trump made surprising gains among Latino voters this year, though Joe Biden won the majority of Latino votes nationally at 66 percent.

Trump also appeared to do better with Black voters, and particularly with Black men, based on exit polling.

The GOP has long been a party tied to big business, and the Trump tax-cut bill that Rubio supported was centered on a reduction in the corporate tax rate.

But Rubio in the interview took a swipe at big businesses, saying they “only care about how their shares are performing, even if it’s based on moving production overseas for cheaper labor.”

Large corporations saw their stock values soar after the Trump tax-cut bill. 

Rubio warned that Republicans would be wise to stick to Trump’s more protectionist line on trade, which has created friction with corporations.

“If the takeaway from all of them is now is the time to go back to sort of the traditional party of unfettered free trade, I think we’re gonna lose the [Trump] base as quickly as we got it. … We can’t just go back to being that,” he said.

Rubio made a similar call for a more diverse “multiethnic, multiracial, working-class” party on Fox News when speaking with host Sean Hannity.

“What I mean by ‘working-class party’ is normal, everyday people who don’t want to live in a city where there is no police department, where people rampage through the streets every time they are upset about something,” said Rubio.