WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 29: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) speaks during a press conference with fellow Republicans on objecting to a scheduled U.S. Senate recess next week June 29, 2011 in Washington, DC. Sen. Jim Demint and other senators are requesting that the U.S. Senate remain in session to work on the debt ceiling issue. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) (2011 Getty Images)
MIAMI – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio may be trying to place Florida firmly in the red state column for Mitt Romney in November, but the Floridian rumored to be on the Republican's running mate short-list may not be able to see the actual color red.
Rubio, like an estimated 8 percent of American men, suffers from color vision deficiency or "color-blindness", his spokesman confirms.
Before a Fox news interview in Miami, Rubio once joked that he was “color blind.”
I depend on my wife to match things
In an interview today with The Hill newspaper the freshman senator said he relies on his wife, Jeanette, to keep him fashion-forward.
"I depend on my wife to match things," Rubio said, then pointed to his red necktie.
"Like this blue tie I have on, for example," he joked to a reporter.
Over 10 million men in the United States who have "color-blindness" cannot tell the difference between red from green or see the two colors completely differently from the rest of the population, according to the Hughes Medical Institute. A much smaller amount of women—only about 0.4 percent—are affected by the visual impairment.
A frenzied amount of speculation has followed the freshman senator from the Sunshine state as a potential vice presidential pick for Romney, who has garnered the mathematical amount of primary delegates needed to be the Republican presidential nominee against President Barack Obama, a Democrat.
Rubio has sparked interest by many Hispanic voters because of the Cuban-American’s Latino heritage and meteoric rise to his U.S. senate seat.
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