POLITICO ‘What Democrat beats that guy?’: Top Dems flinch from Rubio challenge Florida Democrats can’t stand Marco Rubio. But, at the moment, they don’t have much confidence they can knock him off in 2022. The reasons for the hesitance to take on Sen. Marco Rubio are myriad. But none worry Democrats as much as the bilingual Cuban-American’s ethnicity and his home base in Miami-Dade. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images Link Copied MIAMI — Few Republicans are more loathed by Democrats than Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Many have never looked at him the same since, after helping to draft the 2013 bipartisan immigration bill, he backed away under conservative pressure. They mock him as an opportunist or a Donald Trump sycophant.