Yesterday, a column in The Wall Street Journal asked, “Will Obama’s Cuba Policy Lose Florida for Clinton?”
We now have the answer: Yes.
Donald Trump has defeated Hillary Clinton in the state of Florida thanks to strong support from Cuban-Americans.
We can’t stress this enough: No candidate has ever won statewide in Florida while running on an anti-embargo platform.
Moreover, Congress’ biggest opponents of Obama’s Cuba policy have all won handily.
Senator Marco Rubio easily defeated Patrick Murphy, who campaigned supporting Obama’s Cuba policy.
Moreover, Congressman Carlos Curbelo defeated a prominent Obama policy cheerleader, Joe Garcia, by an 11-point margin.
Rounding out the night, Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart also won re-election.
The lessons?
First, candidates should stop taking advice from a handful of greedy businessmen who are clueless as regards the real pulse of the Cuban-American community.
Second, issue polls are meaningless.
But third, and most importantly, as concluded by yesterday’s The Wall Street Journal column:
“No matter who wins on Tuesday, the next president will have to clean up this Cuba mess. Decent Cuban-Americans on both sides of the aisle want answers.”
“There was a significant divide between Cuban voters and non-Cuban Hispanics in Florida, the state with the nation’s third-largest Hispanic population. Trump led with Cuban voters, but more almost three-quarters of non-Cuban Hispanics preferred Clinton. Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric has turned off many Hispanics, but Trump appealed to Cuban voters in September by saying he would reverse the deal Democratic President Barack Obama made with Cuba to reopen diplomatic relations – unless Cuba expands political freedoms.”
As for Senator Marco Rubio:
“Rubio was the overwhelming favorite of white voters, while 4 in every 5 African-American voters preferred Murphy. The candidates split the Hispanic vote, although two-thirds of Cubans preferred Rubio, whose parents are from Cuba.”
In other words, Rubio got over 67% of the Cuban-American vote.
Considering how exit polls undercount early and absentee ballots, it means Rubio easily received more than 70% of the Cuban-American vote.
