There's some legitimate commentary in here, but based on my experience during the election, the headline: The Daily...
There's some legitimate commentary in here, but based on my experience during the election, the headline: The Daily 202: Trump's Katrina? Influx of Puerto Ricans after Hurricane Maria could tip Florida toward Democrats. is another fantasy based in ignorant and biased personal dislike of Donald J. Trump.
Why?
Buried in the article is this:
Republicans also see opportunities to make inroads with Puerto Ricans. They tend to identify as socially conservative, and while they vote for Democrats they don’t strongly identify with the party. The LIBRE Initiative, which is part of the Koch network, has spent millions trying to engage with the Puerto Rican community across Florida over the past few years. The effort tries to give Latinos tools for upward mobility, such as offering English classes in Orlando, Kissimmee and Miami. The group is working to help new arrivals from Puerto Rico with training for job interviews, etc.
Which touches on an enormous blind spot that I've spoken about before during the election.
Obama's campaign, at least during one of his campaigns, specifically targeted all the separate Latino groups in Florida. Like, idk, they were different, or something. The "Latino" community is not one big, brown monolith. Clinton's campaign did not.
I don't know how many times I heard people say that Latinos vote Democrat. Maybe that is a general statistical trend over time, but another big mistake was this idea that if you take the big cities, you take the state, and the Latinos were mostly in the big cities. Again, generally true due to population distribution, but clearly not in this past election. If you get the voters outside the cities to the polls, and get just some of the city voters, they take the state as a group. So getting the 'Latino vote' didn't get Clinton FL.
And here's the problem with that oh, they always vote Democratic thing. No, they don't. They are, in fact, extremely conservative. They are frequently anti-abortion and that directs a measurable subset of votes. If they are successful in business, they are frequently all about the GOP promises of better deals for business on taxes and regulations. They are frequently very supportive of the one man, one woman = marriage business, for religious and cultural reasons.
It is possible if a number of people come here, get registered to vote in FL, blame Trump AND the GOP, and go vote in every following election they might change the balance of voting in FL. But Jeb Bush, and Rick Scoot, and Marco Rubio (and doubtless others) are all putting in high visibility time with the Puerto Rican community. It benefits the Dems nothing if the faces they see and then vote for come election time are all GOP.
Lastly, just for fun, a reminder that not everybody from Puerto Rico goes to FL. There is a large Puerto Rican community in New York City (the largest) and in Buffalo, not to mention Philadelphia, the mid-Atlantic, Texas, California, and probably others. There is no reason to think those people will bring their relatives to Florida.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/09/28/daily-202-trump-s-katrina-influx-of-puerto-ricans-after-hurricane-maria-could-tip-florida-toward-democrats/59cc037c30fb0468cea81c2f/?utm_term=.c0a18c1c13ec
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/09/28/daily-202-trump-s-katrina-influx-of-puerto-ricans-after-hurricane-maria-could-tip-florida-toward-democrats/59cc037c30fb0468cea81c2f/?utm_term=.c0a18c1c13ec
Why?
Buried in the article is this:
Republicans also see opportunities to make inroads with Puerto Ricans. They tend to identify as socially conservative, and while they vote for Democrats they don’t strongly identify with the party. The LIBRE Initiative, which is part of the Koch network, has spent millions trying to engage with the Puerto Rican community across Florida over the past few years. The effort tries to give Latinos tools for upward mobility, such as offering English classes in Orlando, Kissimmee and Miami. The group is working to help new arrivals from Puerto Rico with training for job interviews, etc.
Which touches on an enormous blind spot that I've spoken about before during the election.
Obama's campaign, at least during one of his campaigns, specifically targeted all the separate Latino groups in Florida. Like, idk, they were different, or something. The "Latino" community is not one big, brown monolith. Clinton's campaign did not.
I don't know how many times I heard people say that Latinos vote Democrat. Maybe that is a general statistical trend over time, but another big mistake was this idea that if you take the big cities, you take the state, and the Latinos were mostly in the big cities. Again, generally true due to population distribution, but clearly not in this past election. If you get the voters outside the cities to the polls, and get just some of the city voters, they take the state as a group. So getting the 'Latino vote' didn't get Clinton FL.
And here's the problem with that oh, they always vote Democratic thing. No, they don't. They are, in fact, extremely conservative. They are frequently anti-abortion and that directs a measurable subset of votes. If they are successful in business, they are frequently all about the GOP promises of better deals for business on taxes and regulations. They are frequently very supportive of the one man, one woman = marriage business, for religious and cultural reasons.
It is possible if a number of people come here, get registered to vote in FL, blame Trump AND the GOP, and go vote in every following election they might change the balance of voting in FL. But Jeb Bush, and Rick Scoot, and Marco Rubio (and doubtless others) are all putting in high visibility time with the Puerto Rican community. It benefits the Dems nothing if the faces they see and then vote for come election time are all GOP.
Lastly, just for fun, a reminder that not everybody from Puerto Rico goes to FL. There is a large Puerto Rican community in New York City (the largest) and in Buffalo, not to mention Philadelphia, the mid-Atlantic, Texas, California, and probably others. There is no reason to think those people will bring their relatives to Florida.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/09/28/daily-202-trump-s-katrina-influx-of-puerto-ricans-after-hurricane-maria-could-tip-florida-toward-democrats/59cc037c30fb0468cea81c2f/?utm_term=.c0a18c1c13ec
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/09/28/daily-202-trump-s-katrina-influx-of-puerto-ricans-after-hurricane-maria-could-tip-florida-toward-democrats/59cc037c30fb0468cea81c2f/?utm_term=.c0a18c1c13ec
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