In the Primary, because supposedly we could only get a Republican elected if he could get the Hispanic vote.
Yeah, Matinez in the primary was a mistake and you were given poor advice. While I think it would be great to have a truly conservative Latino to run in Florida, for all the obvious reasons, I wouldn't pick a Hispanic over a conservative in the primary just to satisfy some kind of identity politics.
Having said that, I don't live in FL, but have a lot of family that does and they tell me Rubio seems like a great candidate for conservatives. He's a good looking, younger guy - which certainly is good if people are looking for "change"- and he's a Spanish-speaking Latino which should be appealing to a big FL demographic.
But, I'm getting all my information second-hand, so maybe he's not as conservative as I think - FWIW.