Republicans make gains in Miami-Dade as some Hispanic voters shift right
MIAMI - There was a Republican sweep in Miami-Dade when voters went to the polls, with some Hispanic voters moving to the right.
"My views really haven't changed, but I have noticed in Miami, there has been a huge shift. You saw how the election turned out yesterday; it went really to the red," said Cuban American voter Alexandria Beaton. We also spoke to Michael Beaton.
"I think the left moved too far to the left, and there was a whiplash effect. There was a boomerang effect, and they've lost a lot of the people that were more center-left," he said.
Eduardo Gamarra, a professor of politics at FIU and director of the Latino Public Opinion Forum, noted similar trends.
"There are more conservative Hispanics now than there were in 2020," he said.
His poll from last month shows that 15.5% of Florida Latino voters switched political parties in the last year. Of those, 42.3% went from Democrat to Republican, while 16.5% switched from Republican to Democrat.
"It's a collection of factors moving this population to the right," Gamarra said.
He explained that Republicans have had better outreach, while Democrats face challenges down to matters of messaging.
"Do not use the term 'progressive' in Florida. Fidel Castro called himself a progressive, Evo Morales in Bolivia calls himself a progressive, and Nicolas Maduro calls himself a progressive," he noted.
The Beatons say Democrats simply did not address their concerns.
"The left is not embracing Cuban conservative values, family values," Michael said.
"At the end of the day, Hispanics care about what everybody cares about, which is living in a safe environment and being able to have opportunities and prosperity," Alexandria said.
