Why Democrats Lost the Miami Cuban Vote

Julia Gomez/Staff Writer

Latinos, from Cubans to Mexican, are all different with each demonstrating a unique preference for music, cuisine and even holidays. However, Democrats are treating Hispanics in Florida as one big conglomerate, despite each of us carrying our own culture and generational trauma. If Democrats want to get the Cuban vote, they need to address the trauma inflicted by Fidel Castro instead of writing us off as a lost cause.

Democrats have failed to ask themselves the crucial question that could turn Florida blue; “why do Cubans vote Republican and why is it important?”

“The Cuban-American community in Miami…[held] significant importance in this year’s election, as they represent a reliably red-voting group in an important swing state,” writes Miami New Times staff writer Joshua Ceballos.In 2018, Cubans made up the seventh-largest immigration group, making up 3% of the total immigration population. That’s a huge demographic Democrats are willingly losing or choosing to ignore.

While Cubans are slowly leaving the Republican party, it’s usually younger Cuban Americans who don’t carry the same trauma their parents and grandparents do. If Cuban-Americans who didn’t grow up in Castro’s Cuba are moving towards the democratic party then Dems need to find a way to target older generations.

Treating Hispanics as a conglomerate culture is only resulting in the Democratic party continuously losing the Hispanic vote. Ignoring the differences between Latino experiences is only furthering the cultural divide caused by bigotry and ignorance.

We are all Hispanic, but we are not all the same. And Dems continuously fail when it comes to embracing what makes Latinx communities different. Trump’s campaign did so well because he addressed the traumas that Cubans and Venezuelans carry. By addressing them as individuals, Trump’s campaign validated those fears and promised to prevent it. Democrats have rarely, if at all, done that.

Trump was so successful with Cubans in Miami because he addressed their fears of socialism and communism. At a Women for Trump rally I went to in September, Trump’s daughter-in-law pushed the idea that a vote for Democrats is a vote for the authoritarian regime many Cubans fear. By ignoring that trauma, Democrats allowed Trump to fill that void.

Trump knew his audience when he chose to target Cubans with his socialist propaganda. Two-thirds of non-Cuban Hispanic voters are Democrats, while 58% of Cubans are Republican. While this might make it difficult for the Democratic party to gain the Cuban vote, it isn’t impossible. They just haven’t done much to earn it and it feels like they’ve given up on us completely.

For so many Cubans, their identity as Americans is tightly intertwined with their identity as Republicans. For immigrants throughout the ’80s and ’90s, they were told to assimilate, and that any critique against republican ideologies or candidates was just as bad as criticizing America itself. Democrats need to find a way to change that narrative.

But, how can Cuban-Americans trust Democrats when Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders complimented Fidel Castro? Of all the possible examples to choose from, why did he pick Castro? A dictator who irrevocably changed the lives of so many who live in South Florida. 

While Florida Democrats said his views were too extreme and didn’t represent them, the damage had already been done. His comments further ostracized Cuban Americans and pushed the idea that all Democrats are communists.

If Democrats want to change Cubans’ minds, they need to be around 365 days a year, every single year. They can’t pop up when election season starts and magically disappear when it’s done. Cuban’s distrust in Democrats stems from years of being ignored. Dems need to make up for it if they want to change Miami’s voting behavior and can’t solely rely on younger generations. The only way they’re going to change their image is by inviting Republican Cubans to ask questions and learn about what the Democratic Party actually represents.

The Democratic party’s refusal to acknowledge Florida’s diverse hispanic population is the reason it’s no longer a swing state. Florida voted for medical marijuana and a $15 minimum wage, voted in Daniella Levine Cava as  Miami-Dade’s first female mayor, but Cuban Americans chose Trump as their president. The Democratic party has no one to blame but itself and Floridians are already calling for a change in their Democratic Party Leadership.

“Beyond the Trump win, Democrats lost U.S. House, state House seats and its two most promising state Senate races in Seminole and Miami-Dade,” writes Steven Lemongello and Gray Rohrer.

Since 2017, the United States of America had a President who villainized the press, manipulated the 2016 election with Russian help and tried to convince the public the 2020 election was rigged and refuses to concede. He’s told his supporters voting by mail isn’t reliable, despite living in the midst of a pandemic, and refused to condemn white supremacy.

Despite all that, Democrats still couldn’t convince Cubans to vote blue. Of course, there are going to be those that refuse to acknowledge the truth, but had the Democrats paid more attention to Cubans and spent time getting to know us and our history, they could have turned Florida blue. They didn’t put in the effort and because of their failings, Trump won the Cuban vote. Republicans like Governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Rick Scott will continue to win in Florida until the Democratic Party prioritizes Hispanic votes.

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