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Zach Wamp to lead Marco Rubio's Tennessee campaign
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is only one of more than a dozen candidates for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, but he is one who offers the possibility of wide appeal to both young voters and Hispanic voters.
One Tennessean who already realized Rubio's appeal is former U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp of Chattanooga, who has agreed to lead the 44-year-old Cuban-American's campaign in the Volunteer State.
The former eight-term congressman told the Hamilton County Pachyderm Club earlier this week that Rubio connects to millennials, who need to hear and understand the Republican message to find common ground.
"If we don't nominate a candidate to speak directly to that generation," Wamp said, "we will lose the largest generation in our nation's history."
Rubio represents the future of the party, not "what's in the rear-view mirror," he said.
If the Republican nominee is "a retread," the party may not have another shot at the presidency for a generation, he said.
It's more than 12 months to the GOP nominating convention in Cleveland, Ohio, next July, and candidates will rise, fall and step aside, Rubio among them. But Wamp has a point about the Florida senator.
Since the Democratic nominee is likely to be a scandal-ridden, nearly 70-year-old former secretary of state and do-nothing U.S. senator, millennials who are paying attention will want a choice. So a nominee who is only a decade older than the generation's oldest member could be a good bet.