Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, widely speculated to be a top pick for the Republican presidential running mate, once again firmly denied he would join the GOP ticket.

"I'm not going to be the vice president," Rubio said Friday in an interview with CNN en Español's Ismael Cala. "I'm not."

Last month, Rubio rolled out a big endorsement for Mitt Romney, adding fuel to the fire in talks over whether Rubio, whose parents emigrated from Cuba, would possibly be tapped for the Republican veep spot. Rubio, however, has repeatedly shot down the notion.

With Latino-Americans becoming a more influential voting bloc, politicians are increasingly growing more aggressive in their efforts to court their votes. But the junior senator argued Friday that choosing him as a running mate would not do the trick.

"I'll tell you, the Hispanic vote has to be earned," he said. "You can't just put somebody on there and say, 'This is gonna deliver it.' You've got to earn it, and primarily I think you earn it through economic policies."

Elected in 2010, Rubio was dubbed early on a rising star in GOP. He's known for bucking popular policies within the Latino community, such as the DREAM Act, a proposal that would grant a path to citizenship for minors in the country illegally, providing they served in the armed forces or attended college.

Instead, he sides with positions more inline with the Republican platform on immigration.

"I think a better approach is the one I've talked about, and that is providing these kids some sort of non-immigrant visa status so they can continue to study and then work in the U.S.," Rubio said. "Then at some point in the future they would be able to get in line, same line as everybody else in the world."

Asked if he was setting aside a vice presidential spot in hopes of aiming for higher office in the future, Rubio said: "Well I haven't thought about that in that way. I don't know what the future holds. I want to do a good job as a U.S. senator.

"I think if I do that, I'll have opportunities to do different things in future."