TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Political experts believe the Latino vote can tip the scale in this year’s presidential election. The changing landscape of Hispanic subgroups and changing political values are making it a tight race in the battleground state of Florida.
We often think Latinos share similar values, but Latinos are not a monolith. You need to take into consideration our heritage, upbringing and socio-economic status when you look at which side – Democratic or Republican – members of the large voting bloc will lean toward.
Historically, Cubans in Miami-Dade and Broward counties have leaned conservative at the polls, as many immigrated during the Castro regime.
In Tampa, it’s not the same. Cubans in the bay area can vote either way depending on their heritage. Many can trace their lineage to immigrants and laborers who helped develop Ybor City and identify with Democratic values passed down through the generations.
USF Political Science Professor Dr. Ed Benton says younger Cuban-Americans also lean left.
“They don’t identify with the anti-Castro feeling which benefits the Republican candidate,” Dr. Benton said.
Elio Muller of Tampa is a Cuban-American whose father was exiled from the communist country three times for having opposing political beliefs. That has driven Muller to fervently fight to maintain a democracy in the U.S.
“I was born in Cuba and lost my country to a totalitarian dictatorship. We see Donald Trump as a wannabe totalitarian dictator,” he said.
Muller is the director of Casa Biden, a political organization that’s mobilized in the heart of Tampa’s Latino community to both campaign for Joe Biden and to educate the Hispanic community about their right to vote. Mueller says he can’t fathom why any Latino, and especially a Cuban, would support President Donald Trump.
“He has crushed Latin America immigration; he has endangered Latinos who are on the frontlines of exposure with COVID-19,” he told us.
The Trump administration has aimed to eliminate DACA, a program that offers deportation protection for 700,000 young Latinos in the United States. And in July, the administration increased the cost to apply online for citizenship by 81% – from $640 to $1,160 – during the COVID-19 pandemic.
President Trump has also been highly criticized for his efforts to build a wall along the border of the United States and Mexico, and for the separation of immigrant families along with housing them in various detention centers across the country.
“We’re coming to this country because we believe it to be the land of opportunity and we need to make sure that we know who’s coming in here, legally,” said Vanessa Anderson. “We need to be able to vet the people that are coming into this country.”
Vanessa Anderson is a “walk away” – once a Democrat and now a Republican. She believes Donald Trump is the better ally for Latinos. Born in New York to Puerto Rican and Dominican parents, Anderson grew up with Democratic values but gained a different political perspective after moving to Florida. She is now part of the New Tampa Republican Club.
“I work as a notary and I see now more than ever more Latinos applying for loans and that for me was my first ‘red moment,’ when I saw that so many Latinos being able to have that success and actually have those opportunities available to them,” she said.
Anderson believes Latinos need a president who is focused on the economy and capitalism, one reason why she left the Democratic party.
“I didn’t leave the Democratic party, the Democratic party left me,” she said. “The idea now with Democrats is that they’re embracing socialism and that, for me as a Latina, freaks me out. Capitalism is what’s been able to propel a lot of Latinos out of poverty. The idea [socialism] sounds great but when it’s actually been implemented, especially in Latin American countries, it’s always been a disaster.”
But Muller believes Joe Biden is being mislabeled as a socialist.
“Cuban-Americans too often conflate socialism, communism, with totalitarianism and here they find themselves promoting a totalitarian based on a lie that [Joe Biden is] a socialist,” said Muller.
Muller has been involved in more than 120 campaigns and was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve under the Secretary of Commerce in 1994. He believes the United States and Latinos are in danger under the Trump administration and believes Joe Biden has a well-thought-out plan to help Latinos advance in America.
“Education and healthcare and jobs and helping our small businesses. It’s a very empowering platform,” he said. “Possibly the most empowering platform that I’ve ever seen in a presidential campaign.”
Recent national polls show the former vice president and the commander in chief almost neck and neck among Latinos in Florida.
“Donald Trump got beaten very badly by Hilary Clinton in 2016,” said Dr. Benton, who adds the values within immigrant groups in the U.S. are changing. “Belief that we want to make it on our own and so many of us came to American to make it on our own.”
That rings true to Anderson who, after voting for President Barack Obama twice, felt some of the Democratic-led mandates weren’t helping her advance.
“One, for instance, was the Obamacare individual mandate. I was paying very little for my insurance at a time when that was taking effect. I started seeing that rise and rise and rise to the point I could no longer afford it and I was a full-time student and full-time worker,” she said.
What raises concerns for both of these passionate advocates is that the National Association of Elected and Appointed Officials projects that less than half of eligible Hispanic voters will cast a ballot in this year’s presidential election.
Anderson says the right to vote shouldn’t be taken for granted and is doing what’s in her power to get voters to submit a ballot early and by mail.
“We’ve been going door to door canvassing; we’ve been doing phone calls,” she said.
It’s a critical mission at a time the Latino voice is only getting louder, with a record 32 million Latinos eligible to vote in this presidential election.
“That it is not to them, that it is with them, that we are going to preserve the democracy of this country and the opportunity for Latinos to have the ability to advance their lives and their family in the way that we dream to,” said Mueller.
