Republicans rally Latino vote ahead of Trump visit as Dems make their own push

A day before newly minted Florida resident President Donald Trump’s “homecoming” visit to Broward County and hours before a Republican rally for Latinos Monday, Democrats held a conference call to talk about their efforts to mobilize Hispanic voters to vote blue in 2020.

Among the issues they discussed: Cuba policy, Trump’s actions in Puerto Rico and the Latinos for Trump group, which they called “a sham.”

Carmen Peláez, a Cuban-American analyst, said Trump has misled Cuban Americans to think Obama-era policies are to blame for what’s happening on the island. At a 2016 campaign rally in Miami, Trump called President Barack Obama’s policy a “one-sided deal for Cuba and ... benefits only the Castro regime.”

Trump’s campaign promise to reverse Obama’s Cuba policy of restoring diplomatic ties and loosening travel restrictions has left thousands of Cubans in limbo and forced dissidents to return to the island, she said.

“We’re being used and we don’t appreciate it,” Peláez said. “The hypocrisy is astounding.”

Following Trump’s election, Hispanic turnout in Florida in the 2018 midterm election nearly doubled compared to the previous midterm in 2014. Data suggested that turnout skewed older and Cuban, a demographic group that votes reliably Republican.

According to the Pew Research Center, Latinos will be the largest minority of eligible voters in 2020. Florida’s 2.2 million Hispanic voters make up an outsized portion of the state’s electorate, and nearly two-thirds voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

And the Trump campaign knows that. The campaign kicked off its national Latino outreach effort in Miami this summer, co-chaired by Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Núñez, a former Miami state representative.

At ‘Latinos for Trump’ kickoff in Miami, Pence takes aim at Democrat ‘socialism’

Trump has appealed to Puerto Ricans on Twitter, expressing his frustration with corrupt island politicians., and he’s spoken out against Nicolás Maduro, an appeal to Cuban and Venezuelan voters.

Some of his Latino supporters gathered at a Dadeland hotel Monday night to get in the mood for Tuesday’s event.

About 200 people packed into the event room, where four panelists — including campaign advisors John Pence and Mercedes Schlapp — warned that a Democratic win would lead to a socialist country.

“There’s a thread,” said Pence, referencing the links between Latin America and the U.S. “Their problems will eventually become our own.”

“We have another party, a Democratic Party, that is skewing more left and there’s just one word to describe that: socialism,” said Pence, who is the nephew of Vice President Mike Pence.

Another panelist, Marili Cancio, a local business owner who ran and lost against Democratic state Sen. Annette Taddeo in 2018, said she knows Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans who have fled the repression in their countries cannot afford for Trump to lose.

“When you take money from someone to give it to someone else, that’s socialism. And people in this community understand that,” she said. “When I see that I have a business, that I started a 401(k) for my employees ... that’s something that only in America you can start from nothing and become somebody.”

The Monday night event was a precursor to Trump’s rally at the BB&T Center in Sunrise on Tuesday. On Dec. 7, he’ll also be the special guest at the Republican Party of Florida‘s Statesman Dinner.

But according to a recent Telemundo/Mason-Dixon poll, 64% of Latino voters would choose to replace Trump with a Democratic president, compared with 25% who said they would support him.

Several other Democratic leaders from groups like New Florida Majority and Latino Victory joined the Democrats’ call, which was hosted by the Florida Democratic Party.

New campaign seeks to mobilize Hispanic voters in Florida and across the country

The party has hired 91 staffers, many of them bilingual, to engage with Latino voters ahead of 2020, and have launched a Spanish-language radio program. They also hope Hurricane Maria victims who relocated to Central Florida are likely to register to vote.

Marcos Vilar, executive director of Alianza for Progress, reminded others on the call that Puerto Rican voters have not forgotten the fraction of disaster relief funding the island received after Hurricane Maria, and that the image of Trump throwing a roll of paper towels at a crowd of hurricane victims outside San Juan remains vivid in voters’ minds.

“The American citizens of Puerto Rico must be treated fairly, with dignity,” Vilar said. “Under the Trump administration, they have not been treated like citizens.”