Rubio: I’m not running for vice president, governor or senator

ORLANDO, Fla. – In his first news conference since dropping out of the Republican presidential race Tuesday night following a loss to Donald Trump in the Florida primary, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio insisted he would be a private citizen when his Senate term ends in January.

“I’m not going to be anybody’s vice president,” Rubio told reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. “I’m not interested in being vice president, and I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way.”

In addition, Rubio seemed to squash talk that he would jump back in the race for his own Senate seat – and even talk that he would run for Florida governor in 2018, though he spoke in the present tense that he wasn’t “running” for governor.

“I’m not running for vice president, I’m not running for governor of Florida (and) I’m not running for re-election to the Senate,” Rubio said when asked if he would file papers to run for Senate before the deadline in a few months.

“I’m going to finish out my term in the Senate, and over the next 10 months we’re going to work really hard here, and we have some things we want to achieve, and then I’ll be a private citizen in January.”

Rubio suspended his campaign Tuesday night after losing the Florida primary to Donald Trump by a margin of 46 to 27 percent.

While not endorsing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, he did tell supporters in Minnesota – which he won, in addition to Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. – that Cruz was “the only conservative left in the race.”