Deocratic operatives are keeping a close eye on Latino voters tonight in Florida, one of the first states with a significant Latino population to report results.
A key concern for Democrats heading into Election Day was Joe Biden’s ability to court Latinos, a diverse and growing demographic in a number of key states, including Florida, Texas and Arizona. Democratic organizers in those states had raised concerns about Biden’s outreach to Latino voters early in the campaign, leading Biden’s operation to pour manpower and money into turning out Latinos, but the concerns persisted.
The problem is acute in Florida — particularly in populous Miami-Dade County — because of the large number of Cuban and Venezuelan immigrants, two groups that tend to be more conservative than others.
Early results out of Miami-Dade, Florida’s most populous county, show a closer race between Biden and Donald Trump in 2020 than when Clinton faced Trump in 2016.
Trump’s campaign was intensely focused on Miami-Dade County, crafting an entire messaging campaign around painting Biden as a socialist in an attempt to appeal to the county’s Cuban- and Venezuelan-American populations
“If Biden wins Florida with that margin in Dade (and lets assume it gets 1 point or so better with eday), it will be amazing and unprecedented,” said Florida-based Democratic data analyst Matthew Isbell tweeted as the early results from the county came in.
The question for Democrats will be can Biden outperform Clinton in places like Duval and Hillsborough County, two other populous metropolitan centers in the state, to offset him possibly underperforming in the Miami area.