I mean, Rubio was only propped by the media and the Republican establishment (and only has a chance at retaining his seat at all this year) because he's a young, relatively good-looking Hispanic guy who's good at regurgitating GOP one-liners. He's literally the Republican affirmative action candidate - only "qualified" by virtue of him not being old and white.
If it weren't for those 30-second speeches, poor Chico would've been put on the Republicans' deportation list a looong time ago.
So he's the Republican Obama. It worked for the Democrats.