While Republicans worry recent comments by Donald Trump comparing illegal immigrants to rapists and drug dealers may harm the party’s chances with Hispanic voters during the 2016 election cycle, the 44 year-old Senator from Florida was welcomed with open arms — quite literally — by the Spanish speakers who came to meet him over the course of his three-day swing in Iowa. According to 2003 U.S. Census bureau, just 5.5 percent of the population of the Hawkeye State identifies as Hispanic or Latino, but more than a few found Rubio this week.

Steele said she thinks it’s important Rubio speaks Spanish. “It helps him communicate and connect with the community,” she said in an interview with ABC News. (Fellow GOP candidate Jeb Bush is also a fluent Spanish speaker).

At the same event Steele attended, held by the Westside Conservative Club in Urbandale, a waitress originally from Barcelona happily conversed with Rubio in Spanish, and later hugged him goodbye.