The 2011 TIME 100 Poll

Cast your votes for the leaders, artists, innovators, icons and heroes that you think are the most influential people in the world. Though official voting for inclusion on the TIME 100 list has now closed (with Rain as the 2011 readers' choice), users can continue to vote for their favorites until the final list, selected by our editors, is revealed on Thursday, April 21st

TIME 100 Candidates

Marco Rubio

By TIME StaffMonday, Apr. 04, 2011
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Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Age: 39
Occupation: U.S. Senator from Florida
Previous TIME 100 appearances: 0

Riding the angry Tea Party wave, Rubio, the conservative former Florida house speaker and son of Cuban exiles, stunned the nation by upsetting then Florida governor Charlie Crist (a moderate Republican forced by Rubio's surging campaign to run as an independent) in last year's U.S. Senate race. Virtually overnight, Rubio became a new leading Republican voice, a potential presidential candidate — and the GOP's new hope for garnering more Latino voters.

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