US presidential election: Latino vote could decide result
The battle for Florida’s Latino voters could decide the entire US presidential election. And the reason may surprise you.
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Yanko Maceda and restaurateur Ilya Goldberg used to argue a lot more about who they would vote for.
Mr Maceda, a cigar shop owner in historic Ybor City considers himself conservative while his good friend with a nearby business in Tampa, Florida, is a registered Democrat.
But this year the Cuban and Russian immigrants are surprised to find themselves agreeing on who they will support.
They have different reasons, but the main one they share is that having both spent their childhoods in communist countries, each is convinced that a vote for Democrat Joe Biden will increase what they see as the spread of socialism in the US.
It’s a concern shared by many in Florida, a must-win state for both US President Donald Trump and Mr Biden and which is currently considered a toss up.
The Sunshine State decided the 2000 election after weeks of doubt and a recount gave it to George W Bush by 537 votes.
One of six swing states that secured the White House for Mr Trump in 2016, it’s looking increasingly like it could assume similar significance this year and while Florida has been blanketed by Republican campaigners for much of the past year, local Democrats say they have not had adequate support from Mr Biden’s presidential campaign, which made its first visit there last week.
Latinos make up around a fifth of eligible voters and those who fled from the totalitarian states of Cuba and Venezuela are firming in their support for Mr Trump, who has cracked down on both regimes in the past four years.
At the same time, Mr Biden’s embrace of his party’s left wing and support of the Green New Deal and health care reform more ambitious than Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act have given traction to the Republican attacks that he is a “puppet of the far left”.
All of which makes voters with real life experience of socialism quite nervous.
“I would never, ever allow for socialism to come to this country,” says Mr Maceda, a father of three who was born in Havana.
“The first 15 years of my life was with an extreme communist regime, so I experienced socialism, communism, in my own skin.
“You have to experience it in your own skin to understand that it doesn’t work.”
Mr Maceda said he put “80 hours a week into” his business selling handmade cigars, and his objection to socialism was that it offered equal reward for unequal effort.
“Someone that does enough to get by, he is going to have the same rights as me? There is no way,” he said.
“There is no way that someone can have the same rights when they put in 10 per cent of the effort.”
While Mr Maceda indicated that he, his wife and 18-year-old-son will vote Republican, it was risky for him to state so publicly.
“You have to understand that I am a business owner so there are things I can’t say directly,” he explained.
“I will be voting for the future of this country and the future of this country has nothing to do with socialism or communism.”
Mr Goldberg, whose Stone Soup Company restaurant has won awards for producing Tampa’s best Cuban sandwich, said he was usually outspoken about politics but the recent climate made him more reluctant to state his case.
“I have never seen it like this,” he said of the division in his community.
“Last time I thought it was crazy but this election is a whole new crazy. It’s almost hard to even say how you feel.”
Just last week Mr Goldberg said he had shared a story on Facebook about two teenage boys who were suspended for bringing American flags to school to pay tribute to first responders lost in the September 11 terror attacks.
“Half of my friends were finding a way to fight over a flag. It’s not like we were talking about a Southern flag, we were talking about an American flag on 911 and people were upset. I have never seen anything like it,” he said.
“Everyone immediately takes a side and takes offence. If you’re waving a flag you’re a Trump supporter and if you’re wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt you’re a Biden supporter. Everting is down the middle, black and white. It’s really nuts.”
This concern about speaking out publicly was something that college student CarriAnn Clements, 20, carefully considered before she turned out this week to protest Mr Biden during one of his Florida stops.
“Being a student, it’s very hard to be a Trump supporter or anybody who has a conservative opinion,” she said.
“If people saw it they would immediately cancel you. So that is on my mind but I feel I have to say something.”
Ms Clements, of Orlando, said she would vote Republican because of Mr Trump’s opposition to authoritarian regimes.
“It’s a bigger deal than people think and I don’t think Western leaders who are supposed to be morally righteous should be friends with other authoritarian regimes,” she said.
“They are giving them money to oppress people and I think it’s wrong.
“Trade is good but it’s a fine line between what is good and knowing that you are giving money to systems that are oppressing people.”
Mr Goldberg said he voted twice for Barack Obama and for Hillary Clinton in 2016 but that he was backing Mr Trump because he believed the Biden agenda was “too much change too soon”.
His main concerns were proposed tax rises and the Green New Deal energy platform which targets 100 per cent clean energy by 2050 and, he fears, will drive up energy prices.
“Coming from Russia, seeing some of the things that are coming out of American politicians’ mouths, it’s swung so far to the left,” Mr Goldberg said.
“I am very much in the centre, but it has swung to where they want to bring in these things like the Green New Deal. America is not built for this situation.
“The idea that somebody is going to give up 50 per cent of their income to take care of the community? It’s not in the fabric of this country.”
“To say you are going to change everything with one election? It’s ludicrous, people are saying I don’t want to pay for it.”
These concerns were echoed by retired businessman Ron Reyes, 66, who was protesting against Mr Biden in a “Latinos For Trump” T-shirt in Tampa.
“A large number of Latinos are supporting the President this time around because the Democratic agenda is one of socialism,” he said.
“A lot of Latinos have lived in socialism, have been through socialism, run from socialism. That’s why they are in this country!
“We don’t want to go back there.”
While Democrats had been accused by some of neglecting Florida, retired psychiatric nurse Dorothy Schwartz said any appearance by Mr Biden was better than nothing.
“The more that he can do, the more he can come, the better,” said Ms Schwartz, from Polk County near Orlando.
“Unfortunately Trump is always here. He has his place down in Palm Beach so we want Biden’s presence. We also want sanity, we want kindness and rationality.”
Homemaker Cynthia Ramirez was one of a smaller crowd supporting Mr Biden’s visit than protesting it in Orlando last week.
She was born in Peru and turned up with her son Justin, 27, after learning about Mr Biden’s virtual event launching Hispanic Heritage Month on Facebook.
“I had been trying to find out where it would be so could wave signs and show support,” she said.
“I understand for safety reasons and stuff why they keep the details secret but they could have had a lot more people out here to show their support.”
Originally published as US presidential election: Latino vote could decide result
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