Senate confirms Marco Rubio to lead Trump's State Department

• The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted unanimously earlier Monday to recommend Rubio's confirmation, and Democrats cleared the way for an expedited process.
• It's a resounding show of Senate bipartisanship for one of their own.

Zoom in: The 53-year-old Floridian has served in the Senate since 2011. He ran for president in 2016 before dropping out and endorsing Trump. He was on Trump's 2024 vice presidential shortlist.

• Rubio, who would be the first Latino secretary of state, opposes normalizing relations with Cuba and is a noted China hawk.
• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tapped the state's attorney general, Ashley Moody, to replace Rubio in the Senate, as Axios first reported.

Zoom out: Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which will enter into its fourth year next month, will be one of the Trump administration's greatest foreign policy challenges.

• Trump and his allies have criticized how the Biden administration has handled the conflict. The GOP has been fractured in the past year over whether the U.S. should continue sending aid to Ukraine.

• Rubio testified last week that both Russia and Ukraine need to make concessions to end the conflict.
• Rubio voted against $95 billion in Ukraine aid in April, and has called for Ukraine to negotiate an end to the war with Russia — even if that means Russia keeps some of the territory from the invasion.