“It was all Black women working under the tents,” she said. “It was 98 degrees in South Florida in August, so it was too hot to celebrate. But you could feel it, this sentence. ‘
That sentiment extends beyond the Jamaican-American community and the more traditional African-American community, shared by those in South Florida with roots in Haiti, the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago or Guyana. They are made up of a growing and varied Black West Indian diaspora community, a little discussed but increasingly influential place of voters of the nation’s largest swing state.
Although exact numbers are difficult to reach, census and political studies estimate the various Black communities – in some cases the Caribbean Massifs – at more than 2.5 million, including hundreds of thousands of voters in Florida. That is crucial in a battlefield state where elections are often decided by less than a percentage point.
For a campaign driven by questions of insufficient enthusiasm since Biden declared his candidacy 16 months ago, the electricity generated by the Harris pick has yielded tangible results. The campaign reported a record $ 48 million increase in 48 hours. Pollsters recorded an uptick of support for Biden, who already led Donald Trump – including in the president’s must-win state.
‘It is the choice that will support us. It’s the choice that motivates us, “said Karen Andre, one of Biden’s top executives in Florida of Haitian-American descent. -Involve American voters, including with paid radio ads in Creole and English and possible interviews with Harris with local hosts who have audiences with roots in the West Indies.
Andre said that, following Harris’ announcement, her phone “burned” with calls from Jamaican Americans and also “heard from Haiti, Trinidad, Barbados, the Bahamas.”
At the same time, the independent, Biden-backing super PAC Unite the Country is considering its own program aimed at Black Caribbean voters. The PAC is led by veteran-operating Florida Schale, which sparked a drop in enthusiasm among these voters when Hillary Clinton unexpectedly lost the state to Trump in 2016.
Even Republicans recognize that Harris can have an effect.
“There’s a strong connection between Haitian Americans in South Florida and Jamaican Americans in South Florida,” said Hans Mardy, a Haitian-American Republican activist from Miami. ‘We are one when it comes to our struggle. We fought the same war. We have the same Bible. What is good for one immigrant is good for all of us. ”
Mardy, like many Haitian Americans, said he had difficulty supporting Trump after calling the island a ‘kithole’. Democrats have decided not to forget the community about Trump’s harsh immigration policy, which has particular salience in South Florida. Mardy said his three adult daughters are all excited about voting for Biden with Harris on the ticket.
Another Creole plus for Harris: the campaign manager of her campaign is a well-known daughter of the community: Karine Jean-Pierre.
Eddy Edwards, host of the popular radio show ‘Caribbean Riddims’ AM for 36 years in Broward, said “there’s a buzz in the air” about Harris.
There is still no perfect alignment between the Haitian and Jamaican diaspora communities in the state. The Haitian community is larger, has a Creole language culture, and is more clustered in northern Miami-Dade County. The ancestral island of Jamaican-Americans is a former English colony and they made Broward County their home, and clustered in towns such as Lauderhill and Miramar, where the entire city council and mayor have Jamaican ancestors. Nine months ago, Dale Holness became the first Jamaican-born mayor of Broward, the second-most popular in the state.
The West Indian influence in Broward County is so strong that the International Cricket Council has sanctioned a new Fort Lauderdale stadium. The project manager is Chandradath Singh, a Broward resident who was consul of Trinidad and Tobago in Miami before serving as the nation’s ambassador to India and China.
Singh estimated that Florida has more than 2 million people with roots in the English West Indies. And Harris’ Indian ancestry on the side of her mother gives her added bliss in the Caribbean: Many Indians were brought to the West Indies as impressed servants after slavery ended.
“Biden’s history as vice president for Barack Obama was well received by the community, but now I see greater enthusiasm and support,” Singh said.
Dan Smith, a professor at the University of Florida, studied the state’s voter roles in 2018 and found that at least 115,000 Florida voters were born in Haiti and 91,000 were born in Jamaica. The total number of U.S.-born voters who identify as Haitian-American, Jamaican-American as tracks to other islands in the West Indies is likely to be much higher.
The nonprofit Migration Policy Institute estimates that there are at least 336,000 members of the Jamaican diaspora community in Florida, 528,000 Haitian Americans, 56,000 with roots in Trinidad and 7,000 Barbadian diaspora members. The focus on these Black voters and communities broadens the discussion of Florida voters from the Caribbean, which mostly focuses most heavily on those with roots in Spanish-speaking Cuba and Puerto Rico.
Levi Williams, a Republican activist and former candidate for school board who is of Jamaican descent, said that while Black voters tend to vote Democratic, there is a conservative group of voters who do not like Biden’s policies.
Williams acknowledged that Harris could drive a higher turnout among Black Caribbean voters, but he was skeptical that the Biden campaign would pull it off. He pointed out that Biden recently suggested that there was not much diversity in the African-American community.
“Caribbean people do not consider themselves black in the American sense,” Williams said. “A Jamaican is a Jamaican. In Haitian is in Haitian. And a Trinidadian is a Trinidadian. … You can not place the Black Experience in America on that community. ”
But Marlon Hill, a candidate committee of Miami-Dade County, said he considers himself African-American and Jamaican. He said Harris, who historically attended Black Howard University and was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, “appeals to the broadest definition of Blackness in America by 2020. If you think about one who is Black, you can think of their heritage, of the state where they come from, [and] you have to think of their parents as of the school they went to. Being Black is not singular in 2020. “
Karen Green, chair of the Florida Democratic Party’s Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, said that “Harris’ background” makes a stark contrast to Trump.
‘She is a universal woman of our modern age. She serves as a woman who recalls everything that Trump stands for, ”Green said. ‘I will become an evangelist for her. And there are thousands like me. ”
