Florida

After missteps with some Hispanic voters in 2020, Biden faces pressure to get 2024 outreach right

Published

3 years ago

June 7, 2023

KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — Joe Biden vowed in 2020 to work “like the devil” to energize Hispanic voters, and flew to Florida seven weeks before Election Day to do just that. But as he stepped to the podium at a Hispanic Heritage Month event near Disney World, Biden declared, “I just have one thing to say” and used his phone to play part of “Despacito.”

It was meant as a salute to the singer of the reggaeton hit, Luis Fonsi, who had introduced Biden and cried, “Dance a little bit, Joe.” Still, the gesture triggered swift online backlash from some Hispanics, who saw it as playing to belittling stereotypes — proof that while outreach is important, failing to strike the right cultural tone can undermine such efforts.

“The details actually matter for people because it’s respecting their background, respecting their history, respecting their culture,” said Grecia Lima, national political director of Community Change Action. “It’s not an insignificant portion of what campaigns are going to have to wrestle with in the ’24 cycle.”

Biden is hardly the first politician to strike a sour note trying to connect across cultural lines, but the blowback he encountered illustrates a bigger challenge facing the president and his party as he seeks a second term next year.

Hispanic voters, long a core constituency for Democrats, have reliably supported them based on substantive matters of policy, from health care to managing the economy, according to Pew Research Center surveys. But recent signs that Republicans have made inroads with those voters are adding to the sense that Democrats have work to do to maintain their advantage.

Democratic candidates won 57% of Hispanic voters during last year’s midterms, a smaller percentage than the 63% of Hispanic voters Biden won in 2020 and the 66% of Hispanic voters supporting the party in 2018, when Democrats took control of the House, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of the national electorate.

Meanwhile, 39% of Hispanic voters backed Republicans last year, a tick up from the 35% who supported former President Donald Trump’s reelection bid.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, a Republican considering a White House run, said Democrats have failed to connect with Hispanic voters and hurt themselves by adopting terms like Latinx, a gender-neutral alternative to “Latino” and “Latina.”

“They’ve created a tremendous opportunity for Republicans,” Suarez said. “A lot of the issues that Hispanics care about are issues that are being touted by the Republican Party.”

Democrats say they maintain the upper hand on policy, but party leaders had expected another boost in electoral support from recent demographic shifts in the Hispanic population. A growing share were English-speaking and U.S. born, and they came from a wider array of backgrounds.

Many Democrats also believed harsh rhetoric from Republicans before, during and after the presidency of Trump — who famously used his campaign launch in 2015 to declare immigrants from Mexico to be rapists and criminals — would work in their favor.

Yet even modest swings toward Republicans could mean millions more 2024 GOP votes since Hispanics made up 62% of total growth in the nation’s eligible voters between 2018 and last year’s election, according to Pew. And that makes engaging in effective Hispanic outreach critical, activists say.

“Are they behind?” asked Javier Palomarez CEO of the United States Hispanic Business Council. “Yes.”

Hispanic support for Republicans has risen in places like New Mexico and New York, said Palomarez, who noted that such trends could continue — especially since word-of-mouth is crucial to influencing Hispanic voting — unless Democrats change the way they work to mobilize Hispanic voters.

“What they need to do immediately is really start talking to the Hispanic community in a genuine fashion,” said Palomarez, a fierce Trump critic who once joined the Trump administration’s council on diversity in hopes of finding consensus. “We’re no less important than any other community, but we’ve been left behind.”

Democratic strategist Maria Cardona countered that nearly every cycle features “activists with their hair on fire: ‘The campaign’s not doing enough, we’re not hearing from enough people.’”

She said Biden’s campaign is neutralizing those perceptions with “historic strides and investments” in Hispanic voter mobilization, especially important since a new Hispanic American turns 18 years old nationwide about every 30 seconds. That helps account for around 4 million more eligible Hispanic voters ahead of 2024 than there were in 2020.

Biden supporters also say incidents like playing “Despacito” don’t resonate with Hispanic voters who are more interested in concrete policy achievements, especially when leading Republican candidates feed racially charged fear-mongering about immigrants and the U.S.-Mexico border.

“President Biden has spent his first two years in office focusing on the issues facing many Latino families — lowering health care costs, creating good-paying jobs, getting our small businesses and schools reopened, and fighting gun violence in our communities,” Kevin Munoz, a spokesperson for Biden’s reelection campaign, said in a statement.

Of course, cultural gaffes are bipartisan, going back to 1976, when President Gerald Ford bit into a Texas tamale without removing the corn husk. And Trump and other top Republicans have long used language such as “illegal alien,” regarded by many Latinos as dehumanizing.

In the long run, the anti-immigration policies enacted by the Trump administration, including separating children from their parents at the border with no plans to reunite them, could matter more than Hispanic voter outreach efforts. Still, Hispanic voter support for Republican candidates held steady between 2018 and 2020 at 35% nationally, according to Vote Cast.

And “Despacito” wasn’t the Biden camp’s only misstep since then.

During a visit to Puerto Rico last fall, the president sought help pronouncing Caño Martín Peña while promoting federal funding to improve that canal. First lady Jill Biden flubbed the pronunciation of “Si Se Puede,” the old farmworkers union slogan that later became an Obama-era rallying cry, during a speech in California last spring. Then, in Texas last summer, she said the Hispanic community was as “unique as breakfast tacos here in San Antonio.” “We are not tacos,” the National Association of Hispanic Journalists tweeted in response, prompting an apology from the first lady’s office.

Matt Barreto, who does polling for the White House and the Democratic National Committee, said some of the shift toward Republicans occurred among those who cited the economy as their chief concern.

Barreto said the Democratic Party and its allies have intensified Hispanic outreach programs for the past two-plus years and found ways to make sure their message resonates.

“We’ve been learning our lessons, and constantly improving, and not taking the community for granted,” Barreto said. “That doesn’t mean some of the people who want us to do more are wrong.”

Democrats were also hindered in 2020 by the pandemic, which severely limited on-the-ground organizing and door-knocking. But when those efforts resumed in 2022, Democrats nonetheless lost House races in heavily Hispanic parts of Southern California and Florida, even as they exceeded expectations nationally.

Indeed, the shift toward Republicans was particularly pronounced in Florida, where over half of Hispanic voters backed Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is now running for president. He champions hard-line immigration stances that included using state funds to send asylum seekers from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard because, he said, Democrats in northern cities were ignoring problems on the U.S.-Mexico border.

GOP messages portraying Democrats as too far left and anti-capitalist also resonated with Hispanic voters in South Florida, particularly recent immigrants from struggling socialist countries like Venezuela and Cuba.

In Florida’s Broward County, one of the state’s few remaining Democratic strongholds, Richard Ramunno, a 31-year-old business owner of Argentine and Chilean background, remembered Biden’s “Despacito” episode but laughed it off. He said he worries more about policy decisions Republicans are making at the state level, including the Parental Rights in Education law signed by DeSantis, which makes it easier to challenge a book over its content.

“The laws they are passing are very conservative right now,” he said. “Books are being removed from schools.”

But Ramunno also said Democrats should be doing more to reach out to voters ahead of the 2024 election.

A brighter spot for Democrats last year was Nevada, where the first Latina elected to the Senate, Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, won reelection despite Republicans flipping the governorship. Melissa Morales, founder of Somos PAC, which supported Cortez Masto, said the midterms showed the importance of focusing on economic policies like affordable housing and health care — not GOP-led culture war issues.

“The thing that really emerged for us in 2022 was that Latinos were so solutions-oriented,” Morales said.

Lima, whose progressive group mobilizes voters for races up and down the ballot, said that the economy is a top motivator for Hispanics and that Biden and top Democratic candidates can point to legislative accomplishments, including a major public works package and increased federal spending on health care, social services and green energy.

But Lima also called those “down payments” and said Hispanic voters will expect Biden and Democrats “to make good” on policies that help the economy work better for them — even with Republicans controlling the House.

“We can’t come back to them without progress in 2024,” she said.

Many of the same activists who have criticized Biden and Democrats, however, praised the president for selecting Julie Chavez Rodriguez, granddaughter of civil rights icon Cesar Chavez, to manage his reelection campaign. Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar is a campaign co-chair.

Morales said choosing Rodriguez was not only symbolically important but also encouraging given her organizing background.

“It’s so clear that she is the right person for the job,” Morales said.

In a memo detailing 2024 strategy, which the Biden campaign produced in English and Spanish, Rodriguez promised that the campaign would “engage early and often” with Hispanic and other voters the campaign is counting on. The DNC also plans to build on Adelante, or “Forward,” a seven-figure outreach plan that last year featured bilingual radio and print ads in Florida, Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Texas.

The ads began last May, earlier before a midterm election than the DNC says it has ever started Spanish-language media. The committee is also helping fund Hispanic coalition and organizing staff in battleground states and planning to resume “boot camps” it used during the midterms. They train bilingual campaign staff in key states.

“I believe that now the Democratic Party is in a position where, when I go and tell people, ‘I want you to do more,’ I have willing partners,” said Barreto, who worked closely with Rodriguez on Hispanic outreach during Biden’s 2020 campaign. “That gives me more optimism that I’m not going to be spending the next 12 months trying to hit people over the head and saying, ‘Don’t forget, Latinos are important.’”

Related Topics:Featured Hispanic Viters Joe Biden

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Florida

Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia Targets Orange County Over $300 Million in Alleged Wasteful Spending

Published

19 hours ago

May 21, 2026

Willie David

ORLANDO, Fla. (FNN) — Blaise Ingoglia announced that more than $300 million in the 2025-2026 Orange County budget has been identified as “excessive and wasteful spending,” as part of an ongoing statewide review of local government finances.

According to the Florida Agency of Fiscal Oversight, Orange County’s General Fund Budget has increased by 66.06% since 2019. Last year, the CFO’s office identified nearly $200 million in what it described as excessive spending in the county’s 2024-2025 budget.

Ingoglia said the continued increase in spending highlights the need for property tax reform across Florida.

“Last September, my office revealed that Orange County’s local government officials were irresponsibly spending taxpayer dollars,” Ingoglia said in a statement. “Not only did they not heed our warning, but they doubled down on excessive spending. The taxpayers are suffering the consequences of their wasteful spending problem. The time for property tax reform is now.”

ORANGE COUNTY BUDGET GROWTH

State officials reported that Orange County’s General Fund Budget increased by $688,768,908 since 2020, while the county’s population grew by 131,538 residents during that same period.

According to the report, for every family of four that moved to Orange County, the budget increased by approximately $20,945.

The Florida Agency of Fiscal Oversight also stated that Orange County has spent an estimated $747.5 million in excessive or wasteful expenditures over the last six years.

PROPERTY TAX RELIEF PROPOSAL

The report claims Orange County could reduce its millage rate by 1.22 mills without disrupting essential county services. If implemented, homeowners could see annual savings based on taxable property values:

A taxable home value of $300,000 could save approximately $365 annually.
A taxable home value of $400,000 could save approximately $486 annually.
A taxable home value of $500,000 could save approximately $608 annually.

The findings come as Florida leaders continue discussing broader statewide property tax reform initiatives focused on reducing the burden on homeowners.

STATEWIDE FISCAL OVERSIGHT EFFORT

Ingoglia said his office has now uncovered more than $2.4 billion in excessive and wasteful government spending statewide. He pledged to continue reviewing local government budgets and advocating for transparency and accountability in taxpayer spending.

Americans for Prosperity also voiced support for the effort.

“CFO Ingoglia continues to keep his foot on the gas when it comes to identifying wasteful spending within local governments,” said Greg Ungru of Americans for Prosperity. “Taxpayers deserve transparency, especially as Orange County has continued to throw away money over the last six years.”

Florida

DeSantis Calls for Homestead Property Tax Reform as Florida Revenues Surge to $60 Billion

Published

19 hours ago

May 21, 2026

Willie David

FILE - Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Florida) answers questions about the Reedy Creek Improvement District during his press conference in The Villages, in which he announced legislation to lower drug prices at the Eisenhower Regional Recreation Center Thursday, January 12, 2023. Photo: J. Willie David III/Florida National News file photo.

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. (FNN) — Ron DeSantis held a property tax relief roundtable Monday in Melbourne, making the case for sweeping tax relief for Florida homeowners while urging state lawmakers to finalize the budget so the proposal can move forward.

Speaking at the Space Coast Association of Realtors, DeSantis said a ballot initiative centered on homestead exemptions for Florida residents is the next major item on his agenda once state budget negotiations are completed.

“This is something that a lot of people have been talking about for a long time,” DeSantis said. “Once there’s a budget agreement, then we move forward on putting something on the ballot for property tax.”

PROPERTY TAX RELIEF PLAN

The governor said the proposal would focus on providing relief to homeowners with homesteaded primary residences across Florida. DeSantis argued that rising property values and increased local government revenues have placed added pressure on homeowners already dealing with higher insurance premiums and overall living costs.

The proposed reforms are expected to center around homestead exemptions and could ultimately require voter approval through a statewide constitutional amendment.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT REVENUE SURGE

DeSantis pointed to a dramatic increase in local government property tax collections as a major reason for pursuing reform. According to the governor, local governments across Florida collected approximately $32 billion in property tax revenue in 2019. That figure has now climbed to nearly $60 billion in 2026.

The governor said the sharp increase demonstrates that local governments have experienced significant revenue growth during the state’s population and housing boom.

NEXT STEPS IN TALLAHASSEE

Before any proposal can advance to voters, lawmakers must first finalize the state budget during the current legislative process. DeSantis indicated property tax reform discussions could intensify once a budget agreement is reached.

The governor has continued to position property tax relief as a major legislative priority heading into the 2026 election cycle.

Florida

Darren Soto Faces Toughest Re-Election Fight as Puerto Rican Political Influence Shifts in Central Florida

Published

1 week ago

May 13, 2026

Willie David

US Congressman Darren Soto Federal Update on Milton

ORLANDO, Fla. (FNN) — A decade ago, Central Florida’s growing Puerto Rican population was widely viewed as a political force poised to reshape Florida politics for generations.

Today, that momentum faces growing uncertainty.

As congressional redistricting redraws political boundaries, voter turnout fluctuates, and internal political divisions deepen, Puerto Rican political representation in Central Florida is confronting one of its most significant challenges in modern Florida history.

At the center of the debate is Darren Soto, Florida’s first Puerto Rican member of Congress, who now faces a dramatically reshaped congressional district that political analysts say could strongly favor Republicans in 2026.

The battle over Soto’s political future has become symbolic of a larger question unfolding across Orange and Osceola counties: Can Puerto Rican political influence maintain its footing in a rapidly changing Central Florida electorate?

A Community That Once Redefined Florida Politics

Puerto Rican migration to Central Florida accelerated in the early 2000s and surged further following the economic downturn in Puerto Rico and the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017.

The migration transformed communities throughout Orlando, Kissimmee and surrounding areas, creating one of the largest Puerto Rican populations in the continental United States.

The political impact soon followed.

Puerto Rican candidates increasingly won elections at both the state and federal levels, creating what many viewed as a rising pipeline of Hispanic leadership in Florida.

That rise included the elections of leaders such as:

US House of Representatives

Darren Soto (D) — U.S. Congressman(2016) ; former State Senator (2012) and State Representative (2007)

Florida State Senate

Victor Torres (D) — former State Senator (2016-2024) and State Representative (2012)

Florida House of Representatives

Susan Plasencia (R) — State Representative (2022)
Johanna López (D) — State Representative (2022) and former Orange County School Board Member
Daisy Morales (D) — former State Representative (2020) and former Supervisor of Orange County Soil & Water Conservation District
Amy Mercado (D) — former State Representative (2016)
René Plasencia (R) — former State Representative (2014)
John Cortes (D) — former State Representative (2014)
Bob Cortes (R) — former State Representative (2014)
Ricardo Rangel (D) — former State Representative 2012
John Quiñones (R) — former State Representative (2002) and former Osceola County Commissioner
Anthony Suarez (D) — former State Representative (1999)

Puerto Rican representation reached a high point during the mid-2010s.

In 2016, six Puerto Rican elected officials simultaneously held seats in Congress or the Florida Legislature, including Soto, Torres, Bob Cortes, John Cortes, Amy Mercado and Rene Plasencia.

Political strategists at the time predicted that Puerto Rican voters could eventually help Democrats establish long-term dominance in Florida.

That projection, however, has not materialized.

Redistricting Changed the Political Landscape

The congressional map approved by Ron DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature significantly altered Central Florida’s political boundaries following the 2020 Census.

The changes reshaped Soto’s congressional district by expanding it eastward and incorporating more conservative coastal and suburban voters.

Under the revised district:

The Hispanic voting-age population declined substantially.
Puerto Rican voter concentration dropped sharply.
White voters became the district’s largest demographic group.
Republican performance improved across multiple precincts added to the district.

Political analysts say the new map transformed what had been a Democratic-leaning Hispanic-majority district into a far more competitive seat.

The map also intensified concerns among civil rights advocates and Puerto Rican community leaders who argue the changes diluted Hispanic voting power.

Several legal challenges were filed against the congressional maps, though Florida courts have thus far allowed the districts to remain in place.

Election Results Raise Concerns

Recent election outcomes have further fueled debate over the future of Puerto Rican political representation.

In Senate District 25, Puerto Rican leadership ended after term limits forced the departure of Victor Torres.

His wife, Carmen Torres, sought to retain the seat in 2024 with support from Democratic leaders and Puerto Rican political organizations. She ultimately lost to a White candidate, Kristen Arrington.

In House Districts 35, 44 and 47 — districts with large Hispanic populations — White candidates also prevailed.

Meanwhile, former State Representative Daisy Morales lost her re-election bid after facing opposition supported by portions of the Democratic establishment. That opposition included, but not limited to Johanna López (Puerto Rican), who previously served as campaign manager for Samuel Vilchez Santiago during his unsuccessful 2020 challenge against Morales and later strongly supported a white candidate in Morales re-election race in 2022.

Some Puerto Rican community leaders argue these election outcomes reflect a growing disconnect between Central Florida’s expanding Hispanic population and the candidates ultimately elected to represent those communities.

Others point to changing coalition politics in Central Florida, where Venezuelan, Colombian, Brazilian and non-Hispanic voters increasingly shape election outcomes alongside Puerto Rican voters.

Internal Political Divisions Complicate the Picture

Political observers also note that internal divisions within Democratic and Puerto Rican political circles have contributed to leadership turnover.

Several recent races featured:

Competing endorsements among Puerto Rican leaders.
Financial support directed toward non-Puerto Rican candidates.
Divisions between progressive and establishment Democratic factions.
Low turnout in local and legislative elections.

The victories of candidates such as Rita Harris demonstrated how coalition-building among African American, White progressive and non-Puerto Rican Hispanic voters could overcome traditional Puerto Rican political bases.

Voter Turnout Remains a Major Challenge

Despite population growth, Puerto Rican voter turnout has remained inconsistent in nonpresidential elections.

Political strategists say turnout gaps continue to weaken electoral influence, particularly in:

Midterm elections.
Local legislative races.
Municipal and county contests.

Lower participation rates among younger voters and newly relocated residents have also limited the community’s ability to fully translate population growth into political power.

Republicans, meanwhile, have made gains among Hispanic voters across Florida, particularly among working-class and socially conservative voters concerned about inflation, public safety and economic issues.

Soto Still Maintains Key Advantages

Despite the challenges, Darren Soto enters the next election cycle with several advantages.

Soto remains one of the most recognizable political figures in Central Florida and has built strong relationships throughout Osceola and Orange counties during his years in public office.

Supporters credit Soto with helping secure federal investments involving:

Transportation infrastructure.
SunRail expansion efforts.
Airport development.
Economic development initiatives.
Hurricane recovery assistance for Puerto Rican families relocating to Florida.

Democrats also believe backlash against aggressive redistricting and growing concerns over immigration enforcement policies could energize Hispanic voter turnout.

Still, many political analysts acknowledge that the new district lines significantly complicate Soto’s path to reelection.

What Happens if Soto Loses?

If Soto is defeated, Florida could temporarily lose Puerto Rican representation in Congress entirely.

For many community leaders, the symbolic impact would be significant.

Puerto Rican advocates argue that representation matters not only legislatively, but culturally and politically, particularly for communities that spent decades building political infrastructure in Central Florida.

The concern extends beyond a single election cycle.

Currently, Johanna López and Susan Plasencia remain among the few Puerto Rican voices serving in the Florida House.

López has announced she will not seek reelection and instead is running for Orange County commissioner. She endorsed Samuel Vilchez Santiago, a Venezuelan American candidate, to succeed her.

If elected, Santiago would further reflect the political evolution of Central Florida’s Hispanic electorate, where multiple Latino communities increasingly share political influence once largely associated with Puerto Rican voters.

A Defining Election Cycle Ahead

As Central Florida continues to diversify politically and demographically, the 2026 election cycle is expected to test whether Puerto Rican political influence can regroup under new district boundaries and changing coalition dynamics.

For Soto and many longtime Puerto Rican leaders, the coming election may determine whether the political movement that transformed Central Florida over the last two decades can maintain its influence — or whether a new political era is already emerging.