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With the sizable group of Latino voters, Joe Biden did worse than expected in several swing states. Polls had warned of this months ago.
Donald Trump apparently understood how important the support of Florida Latinos would be to his reelection.
The outcome of the presidential election is still pending, but the results of major “swing states” like Florida are already revealing a cardinal mistake made by Democrats: they did not seek Latino votes more systematically. 32 million Hispanic voters were eligible to vote, equivalent to 13.3 percent of all eligible voters. For the first time, they surpassed African Americans (12.5 percent) and Asians (4.7 percent) as the largest voting minority. Development is particularly relevant because its social influence will also increase in the coming years. If you add people without papers, guest workers, and minors, there are an estimated 60 million Latinos in the United States.
Clinton did better
Voter polls by the AP news agency show Latinos voted for Joe Biden on Tuesday at a ratio of nearly two to one. But that’s a smaller proportion than other minorities like African Americans or Asians, who voted 90% and 70% for Democrats. Compared to Hillary Clinton four years ago, Biden fared worse among Latinos (63 versus 66 percent).
Now the payback is the fact that Democrats campaigned for African-American votes, but took Latinos for granted. Because even if many don’t want to admit it, Trump’s reputation among Hispanic Americans has improved since 2016: In recent polls, 56 percent had a low opinion of him four years ago when Trump was Mexican on the campaign trail as a “rapist. “and” criminal. insulted – it was 78 percent.
Trump catches Latinos
Unlike African Americans, who for the most part vote reliably democratically, Latinos are not a homogeneous group. There are considerable differences in voting behavior depending on the country of origin. Nowhere is this more evident than in Florida, with 29 electoral voices the grand prize among the “undecided states”: in Miami-Dade County, in the south of the “Sunshine State”, lives an enclave of Americans from Cuba and Venezuela, whose families come from socialist regimes in their homeland. Traditionally, they vote Republican, but Trump seems to speak from the heart. According to early polls, a remarkable 60 percent (200,000 votes) more voted for him in Miami-Dade than in 2016.
Apparently, the president understood how important the support of Florida’s Latinos would be to his reelection. Since his early days in the White House, he has trapped voters there, for example, by tweeting a photo of himself with the wife of Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López in the White House shortly after taking office. Trump also directed his terror scenarios at Latinos, according to which the United States would drift toward socialism under Biden. These voters also gave him great credit for the fact that his administration revised the initial course taken under President Barack Obama towards Havana.
In Florida, but also in other states with large Hispanic populations, Trump had set up his own “Latinos for Trump” election campaigns months ago. Their website was consistently bilingual, and each state had special campaign events for Latinos.
Biden’s efforts, however, faded. Until a few weeks ago, his campaign staff in Florida had no office, and Spanish-speaking voters were referred to an external website for a long time. Even the $ 100 million in election advertising billionaire Michael Bloomberg last spent on Biden in Florida, including especially advertising in Spanish, couldn’t make up for that. Several observers acknowledged Biden’s efforts at the last minute with “too little too late.”
Ignored warnings
Hispanic votes play an important role in several states where Trump and Biden are now side by side, including North Carolina (10 percent of the population, 4.5 percent of the electorate), Pennsylvania (8 percent and 5 percent of the electorate). , respectively). ) and Georgia (10 percent and 5 percent).
The lack of support is not surprising. Polls had shown months ago that Biden had a tougher position with Latinos than Clinton, especially among men.
Julián Castro, a former presidential candidate and one of the most influential Latinos among Democrats, has long warned his party: “We have to be much more active.” He also noted that the largely virtual election campaign of Democrats among Latinos due to the corona pandemic would not work. “Hispanic voters like face-to-face contact.”
What is possible thanks to the votes of Latinos has been demonstrated in Arizona: there they helped Biden achieve the first victory of a Democratic presidential candidate since 1996. However, the Democrats had enormous support from nonpartisan organizations such as “Mi Family Votes ”.
