Rubio focuses on father in first early state TV ad

Sen. Marco Rubio’s (Fla.) campaign on Tuesday released the Republican presidential candidate’s first television ad for the early voting states.

{mosads}The 60-second ad is a biographical spot featuring Rubio speaking of his father, Mario, a bartender who immigrated to the United States from Cuba.

“My father was grateful for the work he had, but that was not the life he wanted for his children,” the Florida senator says in the ad.

“He wanted all the dreams he once had for himself to come true for us. He wanted all the doors that closed for him to open for me,” Rubio adds.

The ad will air in the early voting states of Iowa, starting Thursday, and New Hampshire, beginning next week, according to the campaign.

NBC News, which first reported on the ad, said that it was the first in a $20 million ad buy extending through February in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.

Meanwhile, Rubio’s first national TV ad of his campaign, which focuses on defeating Islamic terrorists and was released over the weekend, starts airing on Tuesday.

Rubio currently ranks third in the crowded GOP field nationally in RealClearPolitics polling index.