El Tea Party apoya a Marco Rubio como vicepresidente

(ABC News) Sen. Marco Rubio today got the nod to be the 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee — from the nation’s largest Tea Party group, not Mitt Romney.

The Florida senator — the only Republican whom Romney has confirmed is being vetted for a #2 spot on the ticket — was the top preferred choice of thousands of surveyed Tea Party Express members, the group announced today.

“It is not a big surprise that Marco Rubio is the favorite candidate of the tea party for the vice-presidential nod. He ran as a strong fiscal conservative, and he has delivered with his record in the U.S. Senate for the last two years,” said the group’s president Amy Kremer in a statement. “The only surprise is that he led the other excellent candidates by such a wide margin.”