Donald Trump once again swept Florida, and with more than 95 percent of the vote tallied in Osceola County, Trump is leading Kamala Harris 50.2 percent to 48.7 percent. That margin may not seem too significant at first glance, but for two reasons, it’s big.
First, recent history shows Republicans not performing well in this part of Florida. In 2016, Osceola County broke for Hillary Clinton by a whopping 25 points. In 2020, Joe Biden carried it by a strong 14 points. Today, just four years later, it’s effectively a tie, with a slight Republican edge.
Second, roughly 1 in 3 county residents is Puerto Rican, as of 2020. In fact, Osceola County, more than half of which is Hispanic, represents the largest concentration of Puerto Ricans outside the U.S. island territory.
That territory is basically a floating pile of trash — or so said insult comic Tony Hinchcliffe during Donald Trump’s massive Madison Square Garden rally, among plenty of other jabs at everyone else’s expense. But Trump’s detractors took their cue, recycling their cries of Republican “racism” and claiming Democrats comprise the party of unity and decency. Puerto Rico thus became a defining part of Democrats’ closing message — that is, until Biden torpedoed it.
On a Harris campaign call with Latino voters at the end of October, Biden went on a Puerto Rico tangent and ended up calling Trump supporters, also known as half the country, “garbage.”
“The only garbage I see floating out there is [Trump’s] supporters,” Biden said. Whoops.
Exactly one week later, the most Puerto Rican county in the states ramped up its support for Donald Trump by double digits. You know, you’d think the Puerto Ricans — who fled their trash territory for a better life in the states, particularly after the devastation of Hurricane Maria — wouldn’t self-identify as “garbage” Trump voters. And yet.
They aren’t the only Hispanics to get behind Trump. If past is prologue, they’re part of a larger trend and Republican realignment. While Trump earned 28 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2016, his share jumped to 38 percent four years later. As the left-leaning Brookings Institute reported after the 2020 election:
The changing Hispanic vote is perhaps the most notable feature of the 2020 election. Although many observers believed that Mr. Trump’s tough policies at the border would drive Hispanics away from his candidacy, his share of the Hispanic vote jumped by 10 points, from 28 to 38%.
If trends continue, Trump will be looking at another large jump this election.
Osceola is just one county in Florida. But it’s a majority-minority locale that used to break for Democrats but now backs Republicans, in a former swing state that’s now ruby-red. Florida is so red now that Tuesday night it also rejected radical abortion and marijuana amendments.
Maybe the Osceola County results are indicative of nothing. Or maybe they’re just one more sign that Democrats’ “racism” pearl-clutching, empty promises, and broken policies don’t work for nonwhite voters anymore.
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