Axios learned that Sen. Marco Rubio (R. Florida) will demand that Republicans break up with Big Business at the National Conservatism Conference on Monday.
Why it matters: Rubio seeks re-election for one of the most expensive and high-profile races in the 2022 cycle. Rubio is using the speech to distinguish himself from traditional economic conservatism and brand himself as a leading advocate for the working class.
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Rubio will state that there would be less craziness among America's corporations if those voting their shares were firefighters and teachers rather than their union bosses and Wall Street.
"Promising to reduce regulations and corporate taxes will win the applause and glowing coverage from media outlets focused on stock market."
It leaves millions of hardworking Americans without a voice in American politics and answers to their problems.
The big picture: Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) is one of the candidates for Florida's Democratic Senate Nomination. If Rubio wins re-election next season, his win and branding will position him for a potential presidential run in 2024.
This speech gives a glimpse of how Republicans will approach 2024 and the midterm elections. It criticizes the Biden administration as well as the adoption of "Marxist-style policies" by Democrats.
Other prominent Republicans will also be attending the conference in Orlando, Florida.
These include Sens. Ted Cruz (R.Texas), and Josh Hawley, (R.Mo. ), both potential 2024 presidential candidates, Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance and tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who is also a GOP booster.
Details: Rubio's speech was titled "We Need Corporate Patriotism To Defeat American Marxism."
He will demand that all company boards be committed to the U.S. national interests and free from conflicts of interest with countries like China.
Rubio will counter that by saying that he believes that boards of directors should be sufficiently diverse, as the Biden administration has.
Rubio will likely say that "more challenging" is how to remove power from large institutional shareholders who use regular retirement savings to push 'woken' policies at corporations through voting in corporate elections.
He will argue that the solution is for institutional shareholders to transmit votes of clients, like the firefighters and teachers he mentioned, instead of casting their votes.
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