Later today Joe Biden will make his campaign first visit to Florida this year. Opinion polls show a heated race against the president Donald Trump Amid indications of lagging support for Biden among crucial Hispanic voters in the state. Trump won the state in 2016, and the 29th Electoral College voted, by just 1.2 percentage points.
Trevor Honeycutt and John Whitesides told Reuters that with less than 50 days since the election now, Biden’s campaign is trying to overcome concerns about enthusiasm among Florida’s Latinos.
A recent NBC News / Marist poll showed that White House contenders in scorching heat in Florida and Trump were four points ahead of Biden among Latinos in the state – Hillary Clinton won by 27 percentage points in 2016, according to polls. . Other polls have shown that Biden is leading among Hispanics in the state, but is still falling behind in support of Clinton.
“It’s clear that there has been some bleeding in support of Hispanics, especially Cuban Americans,” said Democratic Senator Annette Tadeo, a Colombian-American. “The Republicans have worked really hard, and have been there constantly.”
Florida Democrats said the constant drumbeat of Republican attacks on Biden as a socialist also affected. Last month’s Republican conference was attended by Cuban-born businessman Maximo Alvarez, who compared Biden’s agenda to the promises of Communist rule by Fidel Castro.
“We are witnessing a massive disinformation campaign in Spanish targeting our society by summoning Biden and the Social Democrats, and it has had an impact,” said Evelyn Perez Verdia, a Colombian-American Democratic strategist in South Florida.
Florida, where Hispanics make up about 20% of the state’s electorate, is a cornerstone of Trump’s reelection strategy. No Republican has won the presidency without Florida since Calvin Coolidge in 1924.
“I’m going to work like a demon to make sure all the Latin and Spanish voices are converted,” Biden said prior to Tuesday’s events in Tampa and Kissimmee, two Florida cities with large numbers of Puerto Rican residents.
He will get some help from his former Democratic rival, Michael Bloomberg, who will spend $ 100 million on Biden’s behalf in Florida with a special focus on Latino voters.
Democrats said polls show Biden leads the way in Clinton’s 2016 support among seniors in Florida, another important voting bloc, and among white voters, giving him plenty of pathways to a majority.
