Trump’s Latino Supporters in Florida Gather to Demand ‘Fair Elections’

Supporters of President Donald Trump protest in Miami on Nov. 7, 2020. Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump’s Latino supporters gathered in South Florida over the weekend demanding fair elections following media projections declaring that Democratic Party candidate and former vice president Joe Biden won the election.

With ongoing counts, pending recounts, and multiple legal challenges by the Trump campaign, supporters of Trump took to the streets of the perennial swing state of Florida in defiance of Biden’s declaration on Nov. 7 that he had won the presidential election.

The 2020 presidential election has been marred by allegations of voter fraud and legal challenges, and Trump has rejected Biden’s declaration, claiming that fraud is the reason for Biden’s lead in several states.

The Epoch Times will not declare a winner until the final results are certified and all challenges are resolved. State legislatures and the Electoral College are the bodies that certify presidential elections.

“We are not protesting,” Latino supporter Adelaida Rosario told the SunSentinel. “We are actually demanding fair elections.”

Crowds gathered in Little Havana in support of Trump and condemned alleged voter fraud, while Biden supporters danced on the streets in downtown Florida.

“Fraud. It’s all been a big fraud,” Maria Clemente, a Cuban-American, told the Miami Herald. “The result will change,” she added. “This isn’t over. For me, this is far from over.”

Supporters of President Donald Trump protest in Miami on Nov. 7, 2020. Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images

The Donald Trump reelection campaign has filed lawsuits in several key battleground states where the race was tight between the two candidates.

“The result isn’t final yet. The legal fight starts Monday,” pro-Trump supporter Isabel Sierra told the Herald on Nov. 7. Sierra came to Miami from Venezuela in 1998.

Both Trump and Biden had been working to woo Hispanic voters and secure their critical support in the state where many Puerto Ricans relocated after Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico in September 2017.

Trump won the state of Florida in the early hours of vote counting on Election Day. He also took Florida in 2016, beating Democrat Hillary Clinton by over 112,000 votes. Florida, one of the largest states in the nation, gives the winner 29 electoral votes.

According to exit polls, the president won as much as 70 percent of the total Cuban vote in heavily-Cuban precincts in Miami this year, in contrast to strategists’ projections that he’d take closer to 60 percent.

AP VoteCast, a survey of the Florida electorate, found Trump won 58 percent of Cuban American voters statewide, while voters with South American heritage split evenly between Biden and Trump. The survey said Puerto Rican voters backed Biden by about two to one.

President Donald Trump returns to the White House after playing a round of golf in Washington on Nov. 7, 2020. Carlos Barria/Reuters

Jason Miller, a senior adviser for the Trump campaign, told Fox News that the campaign has achieved significant success in forging ties with Florida’s Cuban, Venezuelan, Colombian, and Puerto Rican communities. Many Trump supporters in Miami are exiles from socialist or communist regimes such as Cuba or Venezuela.

Trump and Republicans pummeled Biden for months with claims the United States will move toward a socialist society if the former vice president wins the election, saying he would cater to the left wing of the Democratic Party. Republicans’ words added power with Cuban and Venezuelan Americans, who associate the labels with Latin American leaders.

Miami Twitter user Ronnie DePesa said on Nov. 6 that the majority of Latinos in the Cuban community he lives in are “afraid it [the United States] will turn into some socialist mess like the country they left from” under Democratic leadership.

“When you look at Miami-Dade in particular, there was a lot of advertising on the other side of the aisle dealing with socialism and in some cases even the word communism,” said Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor who has held three statewide offices.

“I think that obviously had an impact,” Crist said. “When you’re attacked you need to fight back. I’m not sure how much of the fighting back occurred on our side.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.