“Thanks to Miami-Dade County.”
This was one of the first sentences of the US State of Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ victory speech celebrating his re-election on Tuesday night (8/11). And it wasn’t for the least.
Miami voted en masse for Republican candidates in the 2022 midterm elections, something that hasn’t happened for 20 years. Florida’s leading city also became the leading Latino-majority American city, with the Republican Party victorious.
About 70% of Miami-Dade County’s population is Hispanic. About half of them are of Cuban origin.
- What is ‘awakening’ and why does the term spark a cultural and political war in the US?
- Who Won, Who Lost in the US Elections and Trends So Far
And the metropolis is the clearest sign of an electoral quake that is transforming US politics right now: the shift to the right of a significant portion of the country’s Latino voters.
turn right
This victory especially puts Republicans at ease.
For decades, it was recognized that Latino-American voters were leaning towards the Democratic side. As the country’s Latino population grew, Democrats relied on this segment of the electorate as a national future guarantee for their party.
The Cuban community in Miami has traditionally been more conservative than other Latino groups in the United States. But since the turn of the century, Cuban-American youth seems to be shifting to the left.
By allying with other groups such as African-Americans and whites with progressive leanings, he contributed to Miami’s becoming the major Democratic stronghold in Florida State, which is considered the main electoral battleground in the country.
But that narrative is now being questioned following the defeat of the Democratic candidates in Miami in the 2022 election.
Miami-Dade is the heart of the largest metropolitan area in the State of Florida. The county voted overwhelmingly for Governor DeSantis to be re-elected against his Democratic opponent, Charlie Crist.
Partial results on election night showed DeSantis with a 55% margin to Crist’s 43% – reversing that gap is already impossible.
The last Republican candidate to win in Miami for governor of Florida was Jeb Bush, brother of former President George W. Bush, who was re-elected governor in 2002.
And other election results in Miami in the November 8 election were similarly disappointing for Democrats. Republican Senator Marco Rubio was re-elected to represent Florida State, defeating African-American candidate Val Demings, who is considered one of the rising figures of the Democratic Party.
Conservative Cuban congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar, who has already entered the debate for the House of Representatives, won the Colombian democrat Annette Taddeo.
‘Republicans and they don’t know’
Salazar celebrated his victory at the iconic La Carreta restaurant in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood. “This election proves what has been said,” he told the press. [o ex-presidente americano] Ronald Reagan said that Latinos are Republicans, but they don’t know it yet.”
The broad electoral advantage of the Republicans in Miami shows their strength among Cubans, while they also seem popular among other Latinos, such as voters of Colombian and Venezuelan descent.
This phenomenon did not occur overnight. This was only possible because the Republicans had been gaining traction in Miami for over a decade.
In 2012, nearly 50% of Cuban-American voters voted for President Democrat Barack Obama. But in 2016, only 41% voted for Hillary Clinton.
This trend led to increasingly contentious elections in Miami. And if he holds out, the Republican presidential candidate is likely to win in the city in 2024, which will nearly guarantee the state of Florida, the nation’s third-largest state, to land on the conservative states list.
conservative disposition
If this trend seen in Miami continues to spread to the rest of the country, there could be profound election consequences. After all, Latinos are the largest ethnic minority in the country and represent 19% of the total American population.
The growing conservative bias of Latino voters is strengthening the position of Republicans in other states with large Latino populations, such as Texas and Nevada. And the reasons explaining this outflow of Democrat votes to the Republican side are getting clearer.
Many Cuban-American or South American voters in Miami are not as preoccupied with the immigration issues that are characteristic of other Latino groups in the rest of the country. That’s why they’re not so afraid of the anti-illegal immigrant speech that has become so important to Republicans since Donald Trump came to power in 2016.
On the other hand, the anti-socialist rhetoric of the Republicans resonates with many of these Latino voters who have fled their country and flee the left governments that frighten them. Many Latino people also take a conservative stance on cultural and religious issues.
‘Cut’ was effective
In addition, many analysts argue that for many years, Republicans have been more efficient and disciplined in chasing the votes of Latino voters in Miami and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the Democrats felt that the Latino votes automatically belonged to them. And today we know that this is not so.
In 2024, Joe Biden – or any other Democratic candidate – will have to work hard to prevent the Latino voters who should be his party’s long-term savior from becoming the group that turns the White House over to the Republicans.
– This text was published at https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-63568062.
source: Noticias
