HIALEAH, Fla. 鈥� A City Council candidate in the Miami suburb of Hialeah used image on campaign signs. At one polling station this week, many people wore red 鈥淢ake America Great Again鈥� hats or drove pickup trucks with flags bearing the former president's name.
Outside the venue where the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination will speak Wednesday, trying to upstage his rivals , supporters were camped out more than a day in advance and waving at honking commuters passing by.
Hialeah is a critical part of South Florida鈥檚 hugely influential Cuban American community. It is all in for Trump.
鈥淎ll we want is to get ahead in life. It seems a lot of politicians, all they do is set obstacles in our way,鈥� said Marcel Perez, a Hialeah resident who went with his wife, mother, uncle and father-in-law to vote Tuesday. 鈥淭rump is the right person for the job because he opens the door for us.鈥�
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Cuban voters in this region have helped deliver blowout victories for Trump and other Republicans in recent elections, helping drive Florida's realignment from a traditional swing state to one that's far more conservative. Democrats working toward want to win back some of the Latino vote, and they held a news conference before and Trump's rally.
Trump's campaign is using his event to demonstrate his strength heading into 2024 and to hammer the message that the five candidates debating in Miami are irrelevant given his commanding lead in the polls. He will be endorsed at the event by , who served as his White House press secretary.
Chris LaCivita, a senior Trump adviser, said the campaign would try to win an increasing percentage of the Hispanic vote in 2024. Trump did better among Hispanics in 2020 than he did in 2016, even as Biden captured a majority nationwide.
For Biden, LaCivita argued, what 鈥渨as emerging as a problem鈥� has now become 鈥渁 full-blown crisis ... which gives President Trump, I think, an opportunity to really increase his standing and vote share in the Hispanic community."
Trump's campaign is planning primary ads on Hispanic TV and radio along with targeted mail. In a general election and likely rematch with Biden, Trump's advisers think his messages about the economy, the U.S.-Mexico border and cultural issues will resonate with Latinos.
鈥淔rom the standpoint of the Trump campaign in the general election, we're going to aggressively pursue votes everywhere. We鈥檙e going to compete everywhere for votes," he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e extremely bullish on the fact that we have a receptive audience."
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Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden鈥檚 campaign manager, held a news conference Tuesday in downtown Miami to promote the reelection effort鈥檚 work with Latinos. The Biden campaign has run ads in English, Spanish and Spanglish, combining words of both languages the way many Hispanics do in the United States.
鈥淟atinos continue to support Democrats overwhelmingly,鈥� Chavez Rodriguez said. 鈥淭hat being said, we are not taking any of this for granted.鈥�
More than 95% of Hialeah's 220,000 residents identify as Hispanic or Latino, according to . Most are Cuban or Cuban American and speak Spanish at home.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last year became the first Republican in 20 years to win Miami-Dade County, which includes Hialeah, on his way to a blowout reelection victory.
, a sweeping survey of the national electorate, found that more than half of Latino voters in the state backed DeSantis for governor in 2022, and a similar number supported Republican incumbent Marco Rubio in that year鈥檚 Senate race. Each candidate's total was higher than the 45% of Latinos who supported Trump for president in 2020.
Voting with his family in Hialeah, Perez credited DeSantis for pushing against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and lockdowns, a stand that is a key part of the governor's presidential campaign pitch. But the 41-year-old suggested DeSantis had 鈥渟acado las u帽as,鈥� a Spanish expression that means someone has 鈥渢aken out their fingernails,鈥� or become overly aggressive.
Trump has long courted the Cuban community, which skews more Republican than other Hispanics. , a majority of Cuban American voters, 58%, identified as Republican or Republican-leaning before the 2020 election.
In the White House, Trump worked to undo President Barack Obama鈥檚 Cuba engagement policy and he sanctioned socialist governments in Latin America. As he runs once more, Trump has as Marxists, socialists and communists 鈥� language that may resonate with Cuban and Venezuelan exiles who fled poverty and political persecution.
After Trump appeared at a federal courthouse in Miami in June to accusing him of hoarding classified documents and refusing government demands to give them back, he an iconic Cuban restaurant, coffee shop and bakery in the city鈥檚 Little Havana neighborhood that is a popular stop for politicians visiting Miami.
Trump was cheered on by waiting supporters and later serenaded with 鈥淗appy Birthday鈥� one day before his 77th birthday, and was prayed over by a rabbi.
Kevin Marino Cabrera, a Miami-Dade County commissioner who will speak at Wednesday's rally, said Trump 鈥渋s taking his message directly to the voters while the other candidates are debating in a room full of campaign staff and media for a possible VP nomination or a job in a Trump administration.鈥�
Unlike a debate crowd with loyalties split among candidates, Trump is expected to draw a boisterous audience that uniformly supports him.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not a polite crowd. It鈥檚 vociferous and festive,鈥� said Dario Moreno, a political science professor at Florida International University. 鈥淗e鈥檚 going to outshine those guys at the debate.鈥�
