Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., has left Haitian voters in South Florida disenfranchised after a campaign stop this week.
"It's a lack of respect," Frantz Michel, 46, told McClatchy DC. "The Democrats are always thinking, 'I already got the vote,' because all Haitians are Democrats and no matter what, we're going to vote Democrat. But it doesn't work like that."
Harris met with Venezuelan, African American, and Jewish leaders on her Thursday visit, leaving Haitians asking why they were not given any love.
"When I turn on my TV, you hear everything in the Hispanic community about [President Donald] Trump or about [Democrat presidential nominee Joe] Biden; Biden's team is always in the Hispanic community but they forget about the Haitian community," said Christie Chenier, 35, from North Miami, a heavy Haitian community.
"We feel left out."
Haitian activist Marleine Bastien denied a last-minute invite, according to the report.
"It would have been a great time to announce that there is a future meeting with the Haitian community," Vanessa Joseph told McClatchy DC. "Or explain that on this particular stop there would have been time to only have two stops, however, they are in the process of organizing something else."
Two Haitian-American politicians, state Rep. Dotie Joseph and Miami-Dade County Commissioner Jean Monestime, were invited to meet privately with Harris after a roundtable at Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens.
"From what I am seeing, Trump already won if — in Broward and Miami — the weight is on the Haitian vote," Djenane St. Fleur Gourgue, vice president of the Haitian American Chamber of Commerce in Broward. "The Democrats don't know what they are doing."
But it comes down to respect, which President Donald Trump did show the community on a visit in 2016.
"I don’t think they are going to go vote for Trump; they are just going to stay quiet," Chenier told McClatchy, D.C. "Some Haitians voted for Trump the first time — just because Trump came to Little Haiti. That's how Haitians are. But if they feel like you don't respect them, and they are nobody, they are going to stay home."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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