US Senator Marco Rubio of Florida told top donors yesterday that he will run for the White House because he is “uniquely qualified” to represent the Republican Party in the 2016 presidential race, a source familiar with the matter said.

During a conference call with donors, Rubio criticised Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton as a leader from yesterday and said the 2016 race will be a choice between the past and the future, the source said.

Rubio is the son of Cuban immigrants . He is expected to make a muscular foreign policy a focal point of his campaign, portraying himself as the Republican most ready to handle threats to America in a chaotic world.

Rubio’s support registers in single digits in opinion polls of the likely contenders in what is expected to be a crowded Republican presidential field. But aides believe Rubio, who was on 2012 nominee Mitt Romney’s shortlist for vice president, will rise when voters take a closer look at him.

He will be the third Republican to formally announce a White House bid, following Republican Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

During the campaign, Rubio probably will compete for donors and endorsements with his political mentor, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who has been lining up support for a White House bid although he has not yet formally entered the race.

Rubio will be competing for the limelight with Clinton, who grabbed worldwide media attention with the declaration of her candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination in a video announcement on Sunday.

Rubio, a member of the Senate Foreign Affairs and Intelligence committees, is expected to lay out a vision of American leadership in a world menaced by Islamist extremism and authoritarian governments from Russia to China and Iran.

Rubio is expected to make a muscular foreign policy a focal point of his campaign

On domestic policy, he backs the classic Republican remedies of small government and low taxes, and an end to President Barack Obama’s healthcare law.

Rubio takes some of his foreign policy advice from a group of neo-conservatives linked to the administration of former President George W. Bush. His national security stance could attract primary voters in key conservative states such as South Carolina, one of the early voting states in the primary season. Conservatives are wary, however, of his prominent role in drafting a broad Immigration Bill in 2013, although he has since backed off a comprehensive reform effort.

With Clinton the early favourite to be the Democratic nominee, the eventual winner of the Republican race needs to be sharp on world affairs.

Reversing recent “sequestration” spending cuts on the US military is a main component of Rubio’s foreign policy. One of Rubio’s top outside advisers on defence spending, Eric Edelman, was a senior Pentagon official and aide to Vice President Dick Cheney. He says he regularly briefs the senator.

“It’s mostly about defence, but I’ve talked to him about the authorisation of military force. I’ve talked to him about the campaign against Isis, about Russia and Ukraine. There’s not a shortage of issues right now,” Edelman said.

Rubio is critical of Obama’s diplomatic opening to Cuba and strongly opposes Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government, which he has described as made up of “thugs.”

Elliott Abrams, who also has advised Rubio, said the freshman senator’s Cuban background made him more sensitive to issues of freedom abroad.

“The whole question of the expansion of freedom of democracy is of greater interest to him as a foreign policy theme than it is for many other people,” said Abrams, a former senior diplomat who served the George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan presidencies.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.