Lessons from 2020 election key to securing Latino vote

ORLANDO, Fla. — On election night, one thing was clear: President Donald Trump was going to win Florida.

A major reason for that win was major gains in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.

Those gains by Trump overshadowed just how strong President-elect Joe Biden was in central Florida, especially amongst the Puerto Rican community.

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Marcos Vilar of Alianza for Progress said the lessons learned from 2020 is the key to securing the Latino vote.

“If we build a solid constituency and solid leadership in the Puerto Rican community, you can attract other Latinos who are in the middle, who are sort of finding their way,” Vilar said.

Vilar notes that turnout from central Florida’s 144 predominantly Hispanic precincts was a full point higher than in 2016, but that still came up short of expectations.

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“So there is some disappointment in that, and I think we need to look at the data and be honest about the data; the data says what it says,” Vilar said.

He thinks part of the reason for missing the mark may have been the different approaches to campaigning.

Republicans walked blocks and knocked on doors. Democrats, due to COVID-19, chose not to.

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“These Zoom meetings and Zoom conferences became the norm, and I think everybody became more comfortable with it and more bored with it. And so being able to knock on people’s door and have that face-to-face conversation — there’s no replacing that,” he said.

One county where Biden did not earn a record number of Puerto Rican votes was Osceola County, where the margin was much lower compared to Hillary Clinton in 2016.