Update: On Twitter, Rubio reacted to the TIME cover:

The latest edition of TIME magazine features Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on its cover with the words “The Republican Savior.”

An excerpt from the story:

Rubio comes from a family of immigrants and married into another family of immigrants and lives in a neighborhood of immigrants, West Miami, the bilingual bedroom community where he came of age and began his dazzling ascent from city commissioner to state house speaker to U.S. Senator. Now, just two years after he arrived in Washington, the charismatic conservative often hailed as the Tea Party’s answer to Barack Obama has emerged as the most influential voice in the national debate over immigration reform. He’s also the key player in his party’s efforts to make up to Hispanic voters after a disastrous 2012 campaign featuring Republican candidates who proposed electric fences and alligators along the southern border, as well as Mitt Romney’s suggestion of “self-deportation” for the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants. GOP leaders know they have a demographic problem. They hope Rubio can help provide the solution, which is why they’ve chosen him to deliver the response to Obama’s State of the Union address on Feb. 12—in English and Spanish.

See the cover image…

Rubio lands cover of TIME

This is the second time Rubio is on the cover (alone) of TIME. The first time was in 2010, as part of a four-part series on the midterm elections.