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Florida Senator Marco Rubio speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference at National Harbor in Maryland, February 27, 2015. Rubio is set to announce his bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination on Monday. Photo by Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

WASHINGTON If Marco Rubio launches his presidential campaign as expected Monday, the first-term Republican senator from Florida may have to answer this simple question. Why now?

The 43-year-old Rubio, a rising star on Capitol Hill, could wait four more years, even eight, and still be a relatively young candidate.

Some party officials want him run for governor or try to hold his Senate seat, which could be crucial to continued GOP control of the chamber. By training his sights on the White House, Rubio also sets up a head-to-head competition with Jeb Bush, a mentor with whom he has many overlapping supporters.

But the window to run for president can close as quickly as it opens.

Then-Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois seized an opportunity in 2008 and won. Donors clamored for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to run in 2012, but he declined and now heads into the 2016 campaign in a decidedly weaker position.

Theres no telling that (Rubios) opportunity will be better four or eight years from now, said Fergus Cullen, the former New Hampshire Republican chairman who is yet to throw his support behind a candidate.

Rubios advisers know all about the fickle preferences of the electorate. Rubio was a beneficiary of the 2010 tea party wave that swept dozens of conservative lawmakers into Congress just two years after Obama and Democrats won big.

Rubio was expected to announce his candidacy Monday in his hometown of Miami, which would put him in the shadow of Democrat Hillary Rodham Clintons highly anticipated announcement Sunday of a second White House run.

But Rubios team sees an opportunity to answer the why now question and argue the countrys pressing problems require a new generation of leaders, not a return to the 1990s.

Originally posted here:
Rubio weighs how to position himself in 2016 Republican race