Marco Rubio announces presidential bid: 'this election is a generational choice' – as it happened

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2015/apr/13/hillary-clinton-iowa-marco-rubio-us-election

Version 0 of 1.

6.52pm ET23:52

Summary

We’re going to wrap our coverage for the day of the nascent 2016 presidential race with a summary of the key events.

You can read Richard Luscombe’s full report from on the scene in Miami here.

Updated at 7.12pm ET

6.41pm ET23:41

Rubio faces a steep climb to overtake Jeb Bush and Scott Walker, who have both set in motion fundraising machines over the past months without formally declaring their candidacies.

The senator will especially have to compete with Bush, who as Florida governor helped raise Rubio up while he was a young politician, for votes and money in the peninsular state.

The Washington Examiner’s David Drucker has at least one endorsement for Rubio.

Rep. Tom Rooney, who is backing @marcorubio over @JebBush, was at Freedom Tower for Rubio kickoff. Confirms considering #FLSEN bid

The New York Times’ David Leonhardt:

Rubio's chance depends on using his advantages over Bush and Walker - like inspiration - to catch up.

And the cautious verdict of FiveThirtyEight’s Harry Enten:

If there is a year where new guard could beat *old* guard in a GOP primary, this is it... We'll see.

6.35pm ET23:35

Rubio’s website is apparently overwhelmed with traffic.

http://t.co/CZWJ6ElI5W right now: pic.twitter.com/rBzMQ0iLFk

6.30pm ET23:30

Critical reviews are in and they’re largely positive – an emotional speech to a receptive audience, touching on perhaps Rubio’s strongest assets. Rubio used some of Obama’s favorite rhetorical devices – talk of generational change, optimistic, constructive plans for the future, the inspiration of his family – and turned them to his own devices.

He also played those themes of family, generational change and the future, distinctly against Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush, whose public identities are so firmly rooted in their famous families and the past.

New York Times political reporter Michael Barbaro:

Hell of a Rubio speech. Very powerful. And emotional. Especially in the room.

The Hill’s Jessica Taylor:

So far, Rubio's speech seems very Obama 2008-esque -- talking about his family, improbability to winning, a new generation

MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt:

Instead of stepping on Rubio, @HillaryClinton announcement gave him the sharp contrast that underscores this speech

The Daily Caller’s Matt Lewis:

Cruz and Paul gave good speeches with good lines that I don't remember. This speech had a theme, a message, a purpose we won't soon forget.

Updated at 6.31pm ET

6.23pm ET23:23

And finally he loops back round to his pitch for the “new American century,” and delivers the mandatory thanks and benediction over America.

His wife walks up on stage, and the crowd whistles and cheers while reporters lift up their phones to take pictures. A theme emerges, if you’ll pardon the understatement.

Rubio waves to cams to “Something new” by Axwell /\ Ingrosso

Updated at 6.25pm ET

6.21pm ET23:21

He lists a string of classic middle-class examples, the single mother, the struggling family, the students scrabbling to make it in the world, and says that he will work to ensure “the American miracle lives on”.

“This will be the message of my campaign, and the purpose of my presidency.”

The next 19 months will take me far away from home,” he says, listing his children by name and the sports they play, saying he’ll miss them.

“Theirs is the most important generation of America, … if we can capture the promise of this new century, they will be the freest,” he says.

But if Americans fail, “they will be the first generation of Americans to inherit a country worse off than the one they left their parents.”

6.19pm ET23:19

“In this country you will achieve all the things we never could,” he says, quoting his father in Spanish – in both langugaes.

He continues talking about his father – an interesting contrast to Barack Obama’s similar use of his own mother’s difficult past and his father’s influential role in his life.

“He wanted all the doors that closed for him to open for me. And so my father stood behind the back of that small portable bar for all those years so that I could stand in front of you tonight.

“That journey from behind that bar to this podium, that’s the essence of the American dream.”

6.17pm ET23:17

His voice seeming to falter with emotion, Rubio is now talking about how the son of a bartender and immigrants could hope to win the presidency.

“I’ve heard some suggest that I should step aside and wait my turn, but I cannot, because I believe our very identity as an exceptional nation is at stake, and I can make a difference as president.”

“I’m humbled [to remember] that America doesn’t owe me anything. I have a debt to America that I must try to repay. This isn’t just the country where I was born, America is literally the place that changed my family’s history.”

6.15pm ET23:15

“We must change the decisions that they’re making by changing the people who are making them,” he goes on.

“And so, that is why tonight, grounded by the lessons of our history … I announce my candidacy for the presidency of the United States.”

6.15pm ET23:15

Rubio is ranging wide on foreign policy issues, first going for Iran and Israel, offering steadfast support to the latter and an even harder line on the former.

“We must no longer being passive in the face of Chinese and Russian aggression,” he continues, and throws out an aside about cracking down on the human rights abuses of countries, “especially Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua.”

“This election is a generational choice about what kind of country we will be.”

“Now just yesterday, a leader from yesterday” – the audience boos – “began a campaign from president by promising to take us back to yesterday.”

“Yesterday is over,” Rubio says, waxing philosophical. “And we’re never going back.”

Updated at 6.35pm ET

6.12pm ET23:12

He says the US should reform its tax code, reform immigration, and repeal Obamacare.

“If we do these things the American people will create millions of [better] jobs.”

His voice stutters a moment, and he seems understandably nervous. He goes on to describe a “new economy” in which more people get jobs right out of high school, and in which “the family, not the government, is the most important institution in this society.”

Cue the pro-life, anti-abortion comment.

And then the pro-whatever-education-your-family-sees-fit pitch, an increasingly popular social theme for Republican candidates.

6.09pm ET23:09

He’s harping on education now, saying it’s too expensive to most and prohibits social mobility – an oddly Democratic theme.

When America doesn’t lead, “global chaos inevitably follows,” Rubio continues

“They appease our enemies, they betray our allies, and they weaken our military.”

And at last he hits upon the theme of youth, saying “it’s time for our generation” to lead the US into “a new American century.”

6.08pm ET23:08

He says his parents achieved “what became to be known as the American dream” and is now hitting the campaign segment, talking about young peopel who have thousands of dollars in student loans and don’t have jobs, small businesses straining under “more taxes, and more government.”

“It’s because while our people and our economy are pushing the boundaries of the 21st century, too many of our leaders are stuck in the 20th century.”

Big applause. They’re looking backwards (our leaders), he says.

“Regulating like it was 1999,” to somewhat confused laughter.

6.07pm ET23:07

He’s now doing the requisite family background.

“When they were young my parents had big dreams to themselves, … but because they were not born into wealth and power their future was destined to be defined by their past.”

He says that America was the place where they could achieve their dreams.

“They never made it big, but they were successful.”

6.05pm ET23:05

Rubio has arrived, to chants of “Marco” from the audience.

He says the Freedom Tower is truly a symbol of US “freedom and opportunity” and that that’s why he’s delivering the speech there.

He starts by talking about the experience of “tens of thousands of Cubans” and “slaves and exiles” who arrived there.

5.58pm ET22:58

The Washington Post’s Ed O’Keefe adds one more rap/pop star to Rubio’s apparent list of jams (which at least includes Jay Z, Eminem and Wiz Khalifa).

Rubio moments away from taking the stage, sounds of another Miami son, Pitbull, filling the Freedom Tower.

5.52pm ET22:52

And at last, down in Miami, the introductory remarks are underway for senator Marco Rubio.

A religious leader (just missed his own introduction) has asked for a benediction from God: “We pray that you will raise up the right man at the right hour.”

Now everyone’s milling about, waiting for Rubio.

You can watch a live stream of the speech here:

Updated at 5.54pm ET

5.47pm ET22:47

Back in Washington, Biden cracks, “Today I am announcing that Rubio and I are going to run together.”

VP Biden jokes about joining Rubio ticket, then says he hasnt decided on run "i havent made up my mind" pic.twitter.com/UscnFZ96Qh

Updated at 5.54pm ET

5.38pm ET22:38

Meanwhile, down in the strange world of Florida politics, awkward columns and famous football icons.

No space is perfect: columns are making views of Rubio speech a little tricky at Freedom Tower. pic.twitter.com/Qpjp59iBHX

Spotted at Rubio's announcement former UM coach Butch Davis, current Canes RB coach Ice Harris and NFL wide receiver Wes Welker

5.33pm ET22:33

It was so much simpler way back when … or at least it seems so now.

I miss the good ole days... pic.twitter.com/ahQdTlkGXB

5.23pm ET22:23

My colleague Ben Jacobs (@bencjacobs) has just spoken with the man of the hour, the manager of the Maumee Chipotle.

“She was grabbing lunch and ate for 45 minutes in the restaurant,” manager Charles Wright told the Guardian, adding that few customers even noticed the former secretary of state was eating a chicken bowl with “a friend of hers” – apparently aide Huma Abedin.

“We had a couple of customers taking pictures of her and didn’t know anything until after the fact,” he said. “She definitely got our famous guacamole.”

5.19pm ET22:19

Barack Obama broke the unspoken barrier and gestured over the salad shield. Mitt Romney stood stiffly and bobbled, as alive and natural as he feels everywhere.

Great political moments in Chipotle history pic.twitter.com/acrE31aeqC

Clinton, though, was like a phantom, gone before anyone could notice.

Clinton, wearing dark sunglasses, went basically unnoticed. Chipotle manager didn't believe she had been there until he looked.

5.13pm ET22:13

They’ve found her. She thought she could win over the American people from a van, quietly emailing donors and meeting vetted citizens in tightly controlled interactions carefully arranged to feel natural.

But that would never last. She appeared in a Chipotle in Maumee, Ohio, and the New York Times called.

Manager Charles Wright at Chipotle wasn't aware clinton was There till I called him. He pulled the security photo pic.twitter.com/wCIJlVpm9a

A chicken burrito bowl, with guac, sure to affect millions of undecided voters in the Toledo area with strong opinions about not only this particular Chipotle that she would so brazenly choose to patronize, but also about the decision to order a burrito bowl, rather than risk dirtying her hands with that middle-class option: the collapsing, overstuffed Chiptole burrito.

BRB, looking for the Yelp review of a Chipotle in Maumee, Ohio

Updated at 5.20pm ET

5.00pm ET22:00

Immigration protesters have also arrived at the Miami campaign launch, MSNBC’s Benjy Sarlin tweets.

Immigration protestors have arrived at @marcorubio event pic.twitter.com/Dd5Jo0qGMR

As immigration protestors chant "Undocumented, unafraid" lone pro-Israel protestor shouts "Hillary Clinton! Benghazi! Benghazi!"

Couple at Rubio event told me it was "neck and neck" between him and Jeb, but ultimately they weren't comfortable with another Bush in WH

4.46pm ET21:46

Predictable portents.

Security briefing ahead of Rubio's arrival. The sunglasses and dark suits are a dead giveaway pic.twitter.com/i3qqpcy4FD

If you guessed that Will Smith's "Welcome To Miami" would be playing before Rubio's announcement here... you guessed correct.

4.33pm ET21:33

Defectors from the Clinton camp have come out to the Rubio rally in Miami, Richard Luscombe reports for the Guardian.

From his perch in the middle of a busy junction outside the Freedom Tower, campaigner Bob Kunst delivered his “anti-dynasty” message to a backdrop of buses, trucks and honking car horns.

Kunst, from Miami Beach, and a couple of like-minded protesters, set up their “Fight Terrorism, Support Israel” banners, one accusing Hillary Clinton of “selling out” America and Israel in her time as Secretary of State.

Kunst says he is traditionally a Democratic voter and was a former campaign worker for Clinton, but now despises what she stands for. Above all, he says, he is against any kind of dynasty. “I don’t care if it’s Bushes, Clintons or whatever,” he said, “I don’t want them. If all America has to offer is a dynasty, it can’t survive.

As for Rubio, Kunst wants to hear what he has to say before making up his mind. “I’m not attached to any party, I’m attached to someone who is going to do something, who is going to stop Iran getting nuclear weapons, who is going to stand up to the Islamic Nazis,” he said. “If that’s Marco Rubio, time will tell.”

So why did he fall out with Hillary? “I helped launch her campaign last time around, was with her for 145 campaign appearances, and when it was done I didn’t get so much as a thank you,” he said. “These days she’s more worried what her hair looks like and how she’s dressed.”

Freedom Tower filling up pic.twitter.com/gxYP54oOKs

4.21pm ET21:21

A blocky H with a red arrow pointing right, reminiscent of the logo of a shipping company that you might not trust to deliver your package on time. Why does the arrow point to the right? Does it designate the future? Why not a destination? A rightward tilt to the Democratic candidate? That your package is on its way?

A name, in black and… let’s say cerise, in lower-case letters with the continental United States as the dot on the I. “A New American Century,” all caps, below. What happened to Alaska and Hawaii? Are they not part of the US in the new American century? If it is cerise, is that really a color you want to see on a person who wants power over military drones?

Ever since Barack Obama’s team developed the O with an American flag path sweeping across the circle’s central void, campaign logos stopped simply being campaign logos. Everyone’s got a take. What’s yours?

My take: Rubio's logo > Hillary's. Just more aesthetically pleasing, especially if Rubio used maroon as it appears. pic.twitter.com/Zo25CReUyC

Meanwhile, Bump’s investigation continues.

Rubio’s new campaign logo is a combination of his 2010 one and his 1996 anti-Clinton sign. pic.twitter.com/vpKQl3uTy9

Updated at 4.39pm ET

4.09pm ET21:09

The Washington Post’s Philip Bump has unearthed a photo of Rubio working for Bob Dole in the 1996 election against Bill Clinton.

Marco Rubio: Mad at the Clintons for 20 years. http://t.co/MHZ61L8gFS pic.twitter.com/djWFhu2xVi

Bump also noticed that Rubio seems to have unusual aesthetic ideas about the possibilities of a lower-case I.

3.54pm ET20:54

In Miami, Richard Luscombe (@richlusc) is talking with people gathered round the Freedom Tower, where Rubio will announce at 6pm ET the start of his presidential campaign.

Teenager Mauricio Antonio Pons was at the head of the queue to get into the Freedom Tower, arriving before almost everybody to collect his ticket and claim his place at the front of the arena.

As chairman of the Miami-Dade Teenage Republicans group, Pons wanted to hear a message about youth from Rubio, whom he says can be “a beacon” for those just beginning to take an interest in politics.

“He brings vitality and youth to the campaign, something that we haven’t seen since JFK. He’s someone who can speak for and represent the younger generation,” said Pons.

“I want to hear him talk about what he’s going to do for the younger generation, not just the Hispanic youth of this city, but all around the United States.

In a few hours Marco Rubio will declare presidential candidacy from here pic.twitter.com/fpxYWWaOzX

3.41pm ET20:41

Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign is not just a gamble for national prominence and a chance at the White House, it’s a gamble with Rubio’s Florida Senate seat.

Fickle Floridians have a Republican (Rubio) and Democrat apiece (Bill Nelson) in the Senate, and the state’s diverse electorate – conservative in the north and along the panhandle, pockets of deeply liberal northerners and Hispanics in the densely populated south, senior citizens (the powerhouse of American elections) – votes more or less according to its whims.

Although Republicans won a commanding victory in Congress in the 2014 midterms, with 54 members in the Senate, their majority is slim enough that they could ill-afford to lose the slippery Florida seat.

Politico’s Marc Caputo, in Miami, tweeted that he saw Lieutenant General Carlos Lopez Cantera lingering about the Freedom Tower – and wondered whether the Republican will run for Rubio’s seat.

Any Republican candidate faces a stark challenge in Florida, where the views of Hispanic populations are changing as more young people are able to vote, and in the context of President Obama’s immigration orders and rapprochement with Cuba.

Inbox flooded with immigration groups slamming Marco Rubio today, not exactly how peopled envisioned his launch 18 months ago or so

While Miami was once a city of staunch anti-Castro sentiment, those high emotions have in part slipped into a pattern visible around the US in which Hispanic Americans from all around Latin America have much more mixed views about the country.

3.23pm ET20:23

People desperately want in to the event where Marco Rubio kick off his 2016 presidential campaign, the senator’s press people tell Richard Luscombe (@richlusc), who’s reporting for the Guardian from Miami.

According to Rubio’s press team, ticket applications for today’s announcement were received from every state except Vermont. Spokesperson Brooke Sammon wasn’t able to say what Vermont voters have got against her boss, but was pleased at what she says is the senator’s wide-ranging appeal elsewhere.

“He’s looking forward to making the announcement and getting his message out there,” she said, even though Rubio had already delivered the news of his candidacy in the conference call with donors earlier Monday.

She said more than 3,500 supporters had requested tickets by the close of registration for a venue that holds only a thousand. To cater for the expected masses, the Rubio team set up a giant screen in an adjacent parking lot, with “Rubio for President signs” and pin badges as a reward. By 3pm, an hour before doors opened, the line was snaking around the base of the Freedom Tower.

As for the media, Rubio’s event attracted 190 requests for credentials from 65 outlets.

Also at the Tower is the Washington Examiner’s David Drucker.

3.10pm ET20:10

Rubio thinks the United States is “at a generational moment”, he’s told ABC News in an interviewWest Miami, not far from the Freedom Tower, where he will give a kickoff speech in a few hours.

“I think this country’s at a generational moment where it needs to decide not what party it wants in charge but what kind of country are we going to want to be moving forward,” Rubio told [George] Stephanopoulos in an interview at the Florida senator’s home.

“I think the 21st century can be the American century, and I believe that I can lead this country in that direction. I can help lead it there from the Senate. I can lead it there as president.”

When asked if Rubio believed he is the most qualified candidate to be president, he said: “I absolutely feel that way.”

Rubio’s rhetoric not only suggests the historic potential of the first Hispanic president (not to mention the first Cuban-American), but also implies that Rubio, 43, is the fresh, young leader that the US needs – and not a fusty icon of an earlier age. Don’t vote for those old people, is Rubio’s translation from politico to English.

The presumed frontrunners of both parties, Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush, are both in their 60s, family of former presidents, and familiar faces of the past 20-30 years.

Updated at 3.12pm ET

2.54pm ET19:54

In case you thought presidential campaigns couldn’t get more insular, weird and driven by an insatiable appetite for cash, you’ll be relieved/depressed to know that Ted Cruz has upped the ante.

Cruz is asking his allies to collect at least $500,000 each from their friends and colleagues in return for access to the senator, which the AP describes as “coveted” in its report.

The twist on this cash-for-access bargain is that Cruz has given special names to the various levels of fundraisers and donors within his organization, AP reports. There are statesmen ($250,000), generals ($100,000) and federalists ($50,000), according to a fundraising document obtained by the AP.

With each escalating pledge to raise cash comes more perks, including access to the candidate and his inner circle of advisers. For instance, the top fundraisers are promised access to a donor retreat, dinner with the Cruz family and the title of national finance co-chairman.

For the lowest bracket, donors can become members of the state-level finance committee and attend a Cruz-sponsored reception at the Republican National Committee’s nominating convention in Cleveland.

Cruz is not the first political candidate to essentially tell supporters they can unlock special achievements and abilities by ponying up some cash. In 2000, George W Bush had “pioneers” for $100,000 and “rangers” for $200,000.

In 2008, Hillary Clinton called her $100,000 fundraisers “Hillraisers”, which suggests she ought to spend at least a little of that money paying someone to come up with a better name. In 2012 Barack Obama apparently resisted the impulse to hand out nicknames.

Cruz’s efforts have not gone for nothing, the AP continues. He collected $4m in the first eight days of his campaign, and his Super Pacs are believed to have amassed $31m in about a week.

Updated at 2.57pm ET

2.35pm ET19:35

Always a bastion of trivia, the New York Times has written up a sort of dating profile of senator Marco Rubio, noting he likes football, rap and used to hang out in gazebos to drink with his underage friends.

In the Guardian’s own extremely cursory investigation of Rubio, we learned that he has 40 LinkedIn connections, sometimes also attends Southern Baptist services, and excelled at intern tasks such as getting coffee and doing copies for Florida representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

He also tends to lick his lips a lot, a tic commemorated in this supercut of a recent NRA speech (ht @kaylaepstein).

If you want a completely different account of Rubio, check out the latest of the Guardian’s mock CVs of the presidential candidates.

Updated at 2.37pm ET

2.17pm ET19:17

Still traversing the plains, fields and forests of America by van – but probably just on the highway somewhere – Hillary Clinton is running her campaign’s day one mostly by email, reportedly.

Reporters for the New York Times and Politico say the email keeps hammering the issue of inequality and a diminishing middle class – and that it’s aimed at donors.

In email titled "Why I'm Running. @HillaryClinton says "The average CEO makes about 300 times what the average worker makes."

There might have been a less loaded medium.

2.11pm ET19:11

Progressive Democrats to the left of Hillary Clinton are already pushing her to the left – or to at least say something – before they hand her an endorsement. The Guardian’s DC bureau chief Dan Roberts (@robertsdan) reports from the capital.

Within hours of the former secretary of state confirming her intention to run for president in 2016, several of the most prominent figures on the so-called progressive wing of the Democratic party were urging a clearer vision from her before offering their support.

“It has to include progressive taxation,” said New York mayor Bill de Blasio in an NBC interview shortly before the announcement. “It has to include increases in wages and benefits. It has to include the willingness to tax the wealthy so we can invest in infrastructure, so we can invest in education again.”

“I think it’s important that [Clinton] come out with her vision as soon as possible,” he added.

Others were startled to find omitted from her website any detail about policy or positions, including Zephyr Teachout, a New York law professor and Democrat who ran for governor in 2014.

“I was not particularly impressed with it,” said Zephyr Teachout, a New York Democrat who ran for governor in 2014, warning on Twitter it was “surprisingly free of content, lacking autobiography, policy [and] vision.”

Teachout said she had not given up hope of more progressive candidates entering the race or Clinton taking a more populist approach on issues such as free trade and Wall Street reform, where the party leadership has tended to be more economically liberal in the past.

“There is a hunger for open repudiation of the financial deregulation of the first Clinton era,” she told The Guardian.

But while progressives are trying to nudge Clinton to the left, it’s not clear that they have any alternative candidate to endorse.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, though ruling herself out as a 2016 candidate repeatedly, has also been more vocal in recent days, calling on Clinton to make clear where she stands on issues such as the minimum wage and equal pay legislation.

You can read a longer take by Dan asking what Clinton stands for here.

2.01pm ET19:01

Activist group People for the American Way has already started airing a Spanish radio ad in Miami and Denver (the biggest cities of two major swing states) damning Rubio for his “dangerous agenda”.

“The ad makes clear how Rubio is no different from the rest of the GOP; his far-right positions should disqualify him from the Presidential ticket,” the group said in a statement.

“Just like the rest of the Republican Party, Rubio’s wrong for working families: He supports getting rid of the minimum wage, cutting Medicare, and deporting Dreamers,” board member Dolores Huerta said, using the nickname given to young people protected by Obama’s immigration orders.

Obama won Florida and Colorado in both of his presidential campaigns, but Floridians are notoriously fickle and the state’s polling infrastructure famously problematic. George W Bush won both states in the 2000 and 2004 elections, although he had to be delivered Florida through a supreme court verdict (in which now senator Ted Cruz played a crucial role).

Updated at 2.03pm ET

1.50pm ET18:50

Richard Luscombe is down in sunny Miami to report on Marco Rubio’s big night. No revelers in sight so far.

Five hours ahead of Rubio's 'Big Announcement' (that he's already made) all quiet at Miami's Freedom Tower pic.twitter.com/bsuPp1jWIf

1.42pm ET18:42

Once upon a Florida election, Marco Rubio seemed poised to lead Republicans away from their

base

reputation of stodgy, old white men who like money and telling other people what to do – though most Americans like money, to be fair, and many don’t mind an occasional foreign intervention.

Rubio – charismatic, pragmatic and Hispanic – looked like the leader who could bring Spanish-speaking voters into the party and revitalize his party by reaching out to the largest minority group in America. He could be the Republican who reformed immigration.

Then Barack Obama started signing executive orders, and Rubio blinked. While once he joined Democrats in voting for a “path to citizenship” for people who entered the US illegally, he has now joined the chorus of Republican doomsayers who denounce the president’s immigration orders.

At this inchoate stage of his presidential campaign, he has so far kept silent about what could be his most compelling platform or most severe handicap. Others have not, as Talking Points Memo’s Sahil Kapur observes.

Today is the day when immigration foes attack Rubio for voting for reform and pro-immigration advocates attack him for turning against it.

1.26pm ET18:26

Even as Americans wait for Clinton to actually say what she might propose to help the middle class, or to diminish inequality, or to do about police brutality, or to rein in the NSA, or to confront Russia in Europe and negotiate with Cuba and Iran, or … anything really – despite all these unknowns, New Yorkers seem to like her.

That’s not nothing. New Yorkers don’t really like anybody.

Updated at 1.39pm ET

1.16pm ET18:16

Hillary Clinton is hitting the trail “with a great deal of humility,” a senior campaign official has told reporters during a conference call. My colleague Lauren Gambino (@lgamgam) was listening in in on a conference call.

“We understand that we have to earn this,” one of the officials said. “We understand that this is a long process that we are going to take very seriously with a great deal of humility.”

This campaign is going to be “won in states”, they continued, and Clinton is “excited, energized and anxious to begin” her one-on-one conversations with the people.

“What we are trying to do with this very first trip to Iowa is to make it very clear that it isn’t about her, it isn’t about us. This is about Iowans, everyday Iowans. Their hopes, their dreams. And what they want in the future.”

And as usual, they sang on the same note that the candidates are practically singing in unison: support for the middle class. “The middle class are the exact people Hillary’s fought for tenaciously her entire life,” an official said.

Updated at 1.28pm ET

12.59pm ET17:59

White House press secretary Josh Earnest says President Obama has not endorsed Hillary Clinton yet – “There are other people who are friends of the President who may decide to get into the race,” he says, according to Fox News’ Joy Lin.

POTUS is Biden his time https://t.co/PSJH5jAKDn

Meanwhile, the Veep himself is out talking about the same themes of Clinton’s first campaign video and many of Jeb Bush’s dress rehearsal speeches.

VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN at #GJGB conference: "Labor built the middle class."

12.55pm ET17:55

Of the many questions posed to presidential candidates, all are asked one: “what have you done?” (It’s often followed by a “for us recently”.)

Marco Rubio has struggled to make a mark on domestic legislation and has instead tried to assert himself on the foreign relations committee.

Despite his generally affable relations with Senate veterans, Rubio’s voting record tilts conspicuously toward the Tea party at times.

In 2013, he voted not to renew the Violence Against Women Act – the law that made stalking illegal and set up support systems for women. (The law passed anyway.)

Igor Volsky of ThinkProgress has done some digging around for some of Rubio’s more controversial statements and votes, including a 2013 suggestion that he would vote against protecting LGBT people from discrimination at work.

Asked about a bill that would offer such protections, he told a reporter “by and large I think that all Americans should be protected but I’m not for any special protections based on orientation.”

Rubio has also waffled on climate change, and recently stuck to a trend of railing against Obama administration rules to curb carbon emissions. Rubio does not dispute that something’s changing, but he has also consistently expressed skepticism that humans have anything to do with it.

In 2014 he told ABC: “I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying it.”

He’s square in the middle of the ideological spectrum, however, according to GovTrack – but has missed more votes than most current senators.

You can check out more of Rubio’s votes and positions at GovTrack, VoteSmart and On The Issues.

Updated at 1.10pm ET

12.42pm ET17:42

Memes take root.

This is pretty special. #hillary pic.twitter.com/9v9LFlaVHY

Ru-Bi-Ooooooooooo! #ruinamoviewithoneletter pic.twitter.com/S7680XDeJZ

12.24pm ET17:24

American politicians, too often empleomaniacs without restraint, frequently describe their ambitions in oversized historical terms.

If you’re in need of an antidote and some actual American history, check out this review of Mourning Lincoln, about the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination 150 years ago Tuesday. Life was anything but simple in postbellum America – a point that the people running

Those who mourned Lincoln wrote of a nation overcome by a “universal” grief, but clearly that grief was not universally felt, Hodes notes. Among Confederates, the assassination barely registered compared with the magnitude of their recent defeat. “Heard of Lincoln’s death. Mobile & Columbus lost,” one Confederate officer wrote in his diary.

Abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass captured the mix of uncertainty and pessimism. “It may be,” he posited on the day Lincoln died, “that the blood of our beloved martyr President will be the salvation of our country.” But a month later, he was far more concerned about oppressive Southern laws and the absence of black suffrage: “In what new skin will the old snake come forth?”

Going back to another American icon oversimplified by many current leaders, the New York Times’ Peter Baker has a happier message.

Happy birthday to Thomas Jefferson!

12.04pm ET17:04

“Seriously?” a Clinton staffer asked the boss when she said she wanted to roadtrip to Iowa in a van. “Seriously,” Clinton confirmed – according to her aide Huma Abedin, who did not explain why Clinton nicknamed the van “Scooby” when Scooby Doo’s van clearly said “the Mystery Machine” right there on its side.

My colleague Paul Lewis (@paullewis) has more on the unorthodox start to the campaign, reporting from Iowa.

She will arrive on Tuesday in the small, rural town of Monticello, in Iowa, the first state to choose its Democratic and Republican nominees in January 2016, and the place where her presidential ambitions crumbled seven years ago when she finished third to Barack Obama and John Edwards.

“When Hillary first told us that she was ready to hit the road for Iowa, we literally looked at her and said, ‘Seriously?’ And she said, ‘Seriously,’” her aide, Huma Abedin, told Clinton supporters in a conference call on Sunday night. “This was her idea, and she’s been really excited about it since she came up with it.”

“I think it’s safe to say she surprised quite a few people who had just happened to stop for gas at the same time she did,” Abedin said.

Road trip! Loaded the van & set off for IA. Met a great family when we stopped this afternoon. Many more to come. -H pic.twitter.com/5Va7zeR8RP

Paul notes that Clinton, who has served in the highest echelons of US and world affairs for decades, may “struggle to have the kind of spontaneous interactions with voters her campaign hopes the road trip will enable.”

The campaign likely assumes the risk of that paradox – “act natural” – is worth it. In 2008 she in part toured Iowa in a chartered helicopter, which one imagines makes it difficult to shake hands and kiss babies.

You can read the full piece here.

Updated at 12.28pm ET

11.45am ET16:45

The 2016 presidential election need not be a circus that only Americans enjoy (or loathe) – gamblers of all nationalities can get in on the drama too.

To that end, bookmakers William Hill and Paddy Power have published their current odds for declared candidates and the politicians lurking in the wings, who may or may not join the contest.

To win the Democratic primary, both bookmakers have Clinton as an overwhelming favorite, at 1/3 and 1/4 odds of winning the party’s nomination. Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren is a distant second, at 5/1 and 13/2, followed by vice-president Joe Biden, at 20/1 odds.

Republicans, too, have a strong favorite, but the competitors are far closer. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, the third Bush to seek the highest office, has 2/1 odds from both bookmakers to win the nomination. They put Wisconsin governor Scott Walker at 5/1 and 4/1 odds, and at this point the gambling gods disagree. William Hill gives 7/1 odds to senators Marco Rubio and Rand Paul, while Paddy Power hands the more moderate Rubio an edge at 9/2 and his libertarian rival a 6/1 chance.

As for the 2016 presidency itself, both bookmakers agree: Clinton (5/4, 11/10) and Bush (4/1, 4/1) are the titans to beat.

Walker (10/1, 12/1) and Rubio (14/1, 12/1) are outliers by comparison. Biden, Cruz and others hardly rank, at current odds of more than 30/1.

But odds, like polls, are subject to change, and frontrunners have fallen despite seemingly insurmountable leads before. Just ask Hillary Clinton. Or maybe don’t.

11.16am ET16:16

Nate Cohn and Harry Enten, the pollster luminaries of the New York Times and FiveThirtyEight respectively, are chatting a bit about Rubio’s chances against his fellow Republicans.

Rubio's ideologically in the right place for many conservatives, but, to borrow from Hillary, I don't think they see him as their "champion"

The Rubio campaign has a real shot of being fascinating... Of course, it could just fall flat on its face.

Why Marco Rubio could win the GOP nomination http://t.co/sYlJjBNglP pic.twitter.com/5Y8Clo5hfo

But the fact that there's a debate about whether Rubio's real competition is the right or Bush is... his problem. He's no one's 1st choice.

On this, Enten says he concurs.

11.00am ET16:00

Not to be outdone by the slickly produced videos of Hillary Clinton and Rand Paul, Rubio has released a video of his own.

Viewers beware: it’s heavy on thoughtful piano tinkling over Rubio talking about his parents, ominous synth strings over some talk about the Obama administration, and then the inevitable combo of rising, inspirational guitar and piano chords.

“A new American century,” is the gist of the pitch, and clearly Rubio wants to run on foreign policy bona fides (he serves on the Senate foreign relations committee). Not once in the video – a compilation of other speeches roughly cut together – does Rubio mention immigration.

But it beats the 30-second “We’re ready for Hillary” video that Ted Cruz released on Sunday.

Updated at 12.27pm ET

10.49am ET15:49

Rubio’s early announcement that he’s running for president came in a call to his major donors, AP reports.

The first-term Republican from Florida told his biggest backers on a conference call on Monday that he sees the coming presidential campaign as a choice between the past and the future. In a swipe at Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rubio said the former first lady “is a leader from yesterday.”

Rubio says he has always felt the United States is about tomorrow. Rubio spoke on a conference call with donors before a flashy political rally set for Monday night in Miami.

Updated at 12.27pm ET

10.44am ET15:44

Rubio announces 2016 bid

In the tradition of his fellow candidates, Florida senator Marco Rubio has pre-empted a big campaign speech tonight – his is scheduled for this evening in Miami – with an early announcement, the AP reports.

Rubio says he feels “uniquely qualified” to talk about the future, the agency reports.

Just under 8 hours... #newamericancentury pic.twitter.com/zmhOYml58v

Updated at 10.47am ET

10.34am ET15:34

Windows rolled down, the van cruising 10mph over the speed limit through the undecided sectors of Ohio, the most trusted intern at the helm, and the stereo blasting Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run – Hillary Clinton is on a roadtrip to Iowa, on a mission to win Americans’ hearts.

Or at least that’s one way to imagine it. She could also be sealed up behind the tinted windows of a nondescript but custom-built super van, equipped with polling computers and a Darth Vader-esque meditation chamber from which the former secretary of state briefly emerges to interact with a populace that is startled by her steely resolve to conquer America.

Or it could be somewhere in between. We don’t know. But we’ll do our best to find out, as we follow Clinton on her road trip to Iowa today - and, later, watch Republican senator Marco Rubio launch his own presidential campaign in Miami. He will join two other declared Republican candidates, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.

Welcome to our coverage of the 2016 presidential race. Only 575 days to go.