What went wrong for Joe Biden with Latinos?

The big story was the Latino vote in Florida. Biden got 52 per cent of this vote, a whole ten points less than Hillary Clinton’s showing in 2016. Much has changed over the last four years that has made the Democratic Party less compatible with Latinos. The political team of Gulf Today has the details

- Germania Rodriguez Poleo

In Florida, it was a death foretold for Democrats. The biggest swing state went for Donald Trump by more than three points relatively early on Tuesday night. Some in the party were shocked; others, less so. Democrats on the ground had been sounding the alarm for weeks, as early voting turnout numbers showed less enthusiasm for Biden than for Clinton in the state’s biggest county, Miami-Dade. Miami-Dade is a solid-blue, majority-minority county that Democratic presidential candidates need a landslide win in to make up for losses in the rest of the state. Those worries should have been taken much more seriously.

Back in September, polls showed not only that Biden was trailing behind Clinton’s numbers with Latinos, but that Trump was gaining ground with these voters.

The Biden campaign did try to avert the crisis, with Mike Bloomberg injecting $100 million. Most of that was spent on ads to counter the GOP’s rhetoric about the Democratic Party being ran by let-wing extremists who cozy up to Latin American dictators and want to “defund the police.”

But the final count still showed an impressive showing in the county for President Trump, who narrowed his losing difference from 30 points in 2016 to a mere seven in 2020.