When Rubio addressed CPAC in 2012, event staffers failed to stock the podium with fresh water for his speech.

Its absence, meanwhile, has thrown him off balance. “I said, ‘How come I’ve never had allergies before, and now, suddenly, the last four years I’ve developed allergies? And the answer the doctor gave me was: ‘Well, because you’re travelling to places that you never used to travel to before.’”īut the testimony of Rubio’s longtime associates and his 2008 speech belie this explanation, indicating that Rubio’s water tic predated his career in the United States Senate, even if it escaped notice before then.Įven during brief remarks - like his speech at CPAC in February 2010 and his Senate victory speech in November - Rubio has consistently had water at hand and snuck sips of it into his delivery. It’s something he just has to have around, like a security blanket or something.”Ī spokesman for Rubio, Alex Conant, declined comment for this story, saying only that “POLITICO has lost its mind.” In a recent New Yorker profile, Rubio attributed his extraordinary need for water to unspecified allergies developed since 2011. He says he just gets thirsty, but it’s clear it’s just a nervous tic. “Marco does have a water thing,” said one longtime Rubio associate who has been affiliated with his past campaigns. On the trail, he has even asked hecklers to time their outbursts around his breaks for it. Its absence has thrown off his delivery, and he and his campaign have acknowledged its presence by attempting to turn it into a joke. He reaches for it constantly during public remarks. His advance team has mandated exact requirements for the vessels he will drink out of: stemless glasses - not stemmed ones or water bottles.

The 44-year-old senator takes care to ensure the availability of water at his public events and can be particular about how he takes it. Like Richard Nixon’s perspiring or John Boehner’s crying, Rubio’s need for constant hydration is a bodily quirk that impinges on his political life. He responded in good humor by tweeting out a picture of the empty bottle, and over the next week his PAC raised $100,000 off the sale of water bottles.īut the water tic has persisted and remained noticeable on the campaign trail this fall, drawing comment from those who have worked with and watched the Florida senator. Rubio, of course, became famous five years later for diving for his water bottle and taking a sip in the midst of a roughly 14-minute nationally televised response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech.

Taking a sip of water interview