In 1996, a young Marco Rubio was recruited to work on Bob Dole's campaign by future congressman and friend David Rivera.
Rubio appeared on National Public Radio's Morning Edition in early November of that year where he discussed getting young people excited about voting:
"It's important to get people excited about the political process and understand the importance of their vote, and understand the importance of elections," the young Rubio said.
"And so things such a street rallies and caravans play in to that. They get people excited and they can feel part of something, and maybe someone who wasn't going to vote, who hasn't any interest or paying attention because they were watching the World Series or something on television, goes out on Monday morning and sees a caravan or street rally and is reminded of the importance of voting, gets excited about our candidate and decides, 'I'm going to take a couple of minutes out of my day and go vote tomorrow.'"
Rubio writes about the work he did for the campaign in his memoir, An American Son. He says he did many of the boring but important tasks volunteers associate with campaigns:
"I put in long hours, though, arriving at the office early every morning and often staying until midnight or later. Most days involved mundane but important tasks: setting up phone banks, organizing sign wavings, addressing whatever small problems walked in the door on a given day. Sometimes, I represented the campaign at public events."