President Donald Trump cultivated the Latino vote in Florida, specifically among Cuban Americans, and it paid off, reports Politico.
Florida, home to the largest concentration of Cubans outside the island nation and worth 29 Electoral College votes, went to Trump by more than 3 percentage points with 99% of all votes counted Thursday. Exit polls conducted by NBC and Fox News had Cuban Americans voting for Trump by at least 8 percentage points.
Republicans achieved this advantage by casting Democrat Joe Biden as a socialist and capitalizing on the fears of Latinos from failed socialist regimes — the Trump campaign ran ads likening Biden to former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and current Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
“This mini red wave came through. It was a foreseeable train wreck for Democrats when you saw Cuban Americans,” Guillermo Grenier, a pollster and Florida International University professor who conducts the state’s highly watched Cuba poll, told Politico.
“The air you breathe here is Republican. It’s hard for Democrats to show up here and try to create a different atmosphere,” Grenier added.
Trump drastically improved his support in Miami-Dade County, going from 333,999 votes in 2016 to 520,000-plus this year. Biden wasn’t able to grow Democrat support in the county — Hillary Clinton won over 63% of the Miami-Dade vote in 2016. Biden took 53%.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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