We all know that Marco Rubio has an iPod (do they make iPods anymore? Is that still a thing? I haven’t seen one since, like, 2006), full of the latest from our nation’s brightest and best hip hop stars, and has distinct, if detailed opinions on all of the major issues facing today’s rappers and rap fans. He prefers West Coast rap to East Coast rap, does not believe that Lil’ Wayne has the right to call himself the new Tupac (who he believes was more insightful than his rap rival Biggie Smalls), and, while he doesn’t dislike Pitbull, believes that his music is less message and more booty.
Which probably explains why, in the great race to court Pitbull as a campaign asset – his ability to generate enthusiasm in the Hispanic community is, apparently, unparalleled – the clear leader in the game is not Marco Rubio, but Jeb Bush.
There have been reports that both Democrats and Republicans have been ferociously trying to court the rapper to their party — strongly believing Mr. 305 could have GREAT political influence in the election.
And why? He’s got a huge Latino following … especially in Florida … which is one of the most important swing states for presidential elections.
Which brings us to former Gov. Bush — who was out in D.C. Thursday morning. We asked a fairly easy question — if you could bring ANYONE to a baseball game, who would it be?
First he picked Teddy Roosevelt … but then, he adds another name to the list — Mr. Worldwide!!
Pitbull, it turns out, not only has an affinity for capri pants, but has a net worth of close to $145 million, making him one of the highest-paid rappers in the world. He’s also a conservative stock investor, owns property holdings (including restaurants), and has several lucrative sponsorship deals. He also has a perfume.
He is also very powerful, politically. Laugh all you want, but the man was a surrogate for President Obama in 2012, and drew huge swaths of young Hispanics to rallies. And they’ve been working on getting him on Team Jeb since before Jeb even announced an exploratory committee. As early as February, rumors were circulating that Jeb surrogates were talking up the potential Presidential candidate to Pitbull at parties, and Florida Governor Rick Scott recently declared Pitbull’s birthday a state holiday, in a bid to cur his favor. Florida Republicans consider him “policy-oriented” and have noted that he favors conservative initiatives, like the expansion of charter schools and encouraging entreprenerism.
For his part, Pitbull has not yet declared an official political affiliation. When questioned by Buzzfeed, he said that instead of joining a political party, he was more interested in “bring[ing] political parties to my party because they can’t, they won’t they never will, stop the Pitbull party.”
Indeed.
