Florida Sen. Marco Rubio announces that he is suspending his presidential campaign at a March 15 rally in Miami. | Getty Rubio: I won't be anyone's VP

On his first day back on Capitol Hill since exiting the presidential race, Marco Rubio ruled out becoming a vice presidential candidate or running for governor of his state in 2018. The senator who openly admitted he's soured on his day job said he's had no misgivings about vacating his seat to run for president.

Rubio, who dropped his presidential bid Tuesday after losing his home state of Florida to Donald Trump, is clearly still pining for a way to stump the billionaire front-runner. He stopped short of endorsing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz but wouldn't rule out doing so in the future. (Rubio did suggest, however, that he will back Florida Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera in a contested primary to succeed him.)


“Clearly, Ted’s positions are conservative, but I don’t have anything further to elaborate on. I don’t have anything to announce,” Rubio said during a seven-minute gaggle with reporters, which he used to conduct regularly before the presidential race buttoned him up. “Hopefully there’s still time to prevent a Trump nomination, which I think would fracture the party and be damaging to the conservative movement.”

But Rubio ruled out a "unity ticket" as vice president to Cruz — or to anyone else, for that matter: “I’m not going to be anybody’s vice president.”

Rubio said he will throw himself headlong back into a job that he all but abandoned months ago. He graced the Senate floor for the first time in weeks to vote to hold a website in contempt of Congress for not participating in a congressional investigation, then headed to a classified briefing room for members of the Intelligence Committee on which he serves.

But Rubio also seemed reflective on the race and seemed genuinely perplexed about how the Republican Party will stand together in November with Trump as its standard-bearer. There will not be “riots,” as Trump has claimed, if the business mogul is denied the nomination, according to Rubio.

But there will be major divisions — no matter how Trump arrives at the nomination — if the front-runner succeeds in assuming the party’s mantle.

“In an ideal world, you have a nominee, and people coalesce around the nominee, and it gives you a stronger position in the general election. I don't believe Donald Trump will ever be able to do that. That’s my opinion,” Rubio said.

That answer brought shouts of “last question” from Rubio’s press aide. But the first-term senator appeared to be enjoying the banter with a press corps that he courted for years before zipping it during his increasingly rare appearances on Capitol Hill.

He answered several more queries: Rubio said immigration reform was a “factor” in the race, admitted his personal insults toward Trump did not reflect well on him and indicated he would support Lopez-Cantera in a Senate primary that could determine which party controls the Senate in 2017.

He also left the door open for a future political run. At just 44 years old, he should have plenty of options in the future.

“I don’t know. Guys, I just got here. I’m not running for governor. I’m not running for reelection to Senate,” he said with a grin. “Beyond that, who knows?”