Majority of South Florida Cubans in GOP want Trump to run again, dislike Biden's handling of economy, global affairs, FIU Cuba poll finds
MIAMI -- A newly released poll of Cuban Americans who live in South Florida and vote Republican has found that a majority of them want to see former President Donald Trump run for office again in 2024.
The findings in the 2022 FIU Cuba poll also found that participants said President Joe Biden was not doing a good job responding to the issues facing the county.
According to the poll findings, only 32 percent of Cuban Americans gave Biden high, or positive, job approval ratings, while 37 percent said they want to see Trump mount another bid for the White House, according to poll findings.
And nearly 60 percent of registered Cuban Republicans said they still support the former president despite the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol or the variety of legal threats that Trump is facing.
""They remain loyal to the Republican Party and the Trump version of it," said Guillermo Grenier, lead investigator on the Cuba Poll and a professor of sociology in the Department of Global and Sociocultural Studies at the Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs, which sponsors the poll along with FIU's Cuban Research Institute. "It seems the train of the Republican Party is still picking up passengers on Calle Ocho."
Grenier says, "When you look at the whole survey you wee the dominance of the Republican Party and specifically a very hard-line Trump influence."
"Cuban interests include the economy, health care, and immigration."
Launched in 1991, the FIU Cuba Poll is one of the longest-running surveys that tracks opinions in the South Florida Cuban community.
According to the poll findings:
- Only 32 percent of Cuban Americans give Biden a positive job approval rating, below his national support which is in the mid-40s for several other national polls tracking voter satisfaction.
- At 52 percent, the GOP has a slight edge in support from registered voters in South Florida who are Cubans. The poll found that among new transplants who moved to South Florida since 2015, 54 percent favor Republicans.
- A sizable number of local Cubans, 64 percent, said they plan to vote for incumbent Gov. Ron DeSantis.
- Sen. Marco Rubio is expected to garner 64 percent of the Cuban-American vote
