Say, Are There A Lot Of Haitian-American Voters In, Say, Florida?

Hope that outweighs the purges of Dems from voter rolls.

Image by ‘Dave,’ Creative Commons License 2.0

We just wrote recently about the US Senate race in Florida between former Rep. Debbie-Mucarsel-Powell (D) and incumbent Republican Rick ‘Bat Boy Escapes Medicare Fraud Charges’ Scott, but we wanted to bring you up to speed on a few recent developments in that contest.

For starters, since that late-August overview, the polling in the race has continued to be tight, with at least two polls showing Mucarsel-Powell within the margin of error, making the race a statistical dead heat. The Hill/Emerson College Poll had Scott ahead by just one point statewide but the interesting details are in the crosstabs, as WUSF reports:

Florida independent voters break for Mucarsel-Powell, 47-34%, while 19% are undecided, according to the poll, which also gives her a six-point edge over Scott among women, 48-42%. Men favor Scott, 51-42%.

Following that good news, Mucarsel-Powell’s campaign said it raised $1 million in 48 hours, with 13,000 new donors. Other polls have had Mucarsel-Powell within three points or five points of Scott, although Scott continues to outspend Mucarsel-Powell by about four to one. But Scott also has an abysmal approval rating of just 35 percent overall; even among Republicans, only 59 percent like him.

Mucarsel-Powell — and Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket — may also get some help from widespread disgust at the GOP’s new national hate campaign against Haitian immigrants. Florida is home to about half a million Haitian Americans, whose political influence has grown in recent years. At a debate watch party for Democrats of Caribbean descent, Trump’s “They’re eating the dogs!” lie drew shocked laughter, then anger. Guithele Ruiz-Nicolas, a former president of Broward County’s Haitian American Democratic Club, told the Los Angeles Times, “Our best revenge is to go out and get the votes out.”

However, as Miami-based Democratic pollster Fernand Amadi points out, most Haitian-American voters in the state already vote Democratic; at somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000, Florida’s Haitian-American voting bloc makes up less than one percent of voters. That said, since elections in Florida often turn on small margins, the disgusting comments by Trump and JD Vance may motivate higher turnout among Haitian-Americans and other immigrant communities and people of color. There’s no telling how much a difference that could make in the Senate race, but every bit will help.

Mucarsel-Powell was born in Ecuador and grew up in Miami since the age of 14; she was the first South American-born immigrant to serve in Congress. She has hammered Trump and Vance for their racist attacks on Haitians, and most recently on Trump’s bizarre statement that he would deport Haitian immigrants from Springfield, Ohio, “back to Venezuela,” which is not actually where Haitians come from.

And finally, there’s this reminder for all Florida Democrats: Check your damn registration, because nearly a million Democrats have been moved from “active” to “inactive” status on the state’s voter rolls, thanks to new restrictive voting laws. “Inactive” voters are still eligible to vote on Election Day, they just aren’t counted in official tallies of “registered” voters, which is why Republicans have been claiming they have a huge registration advantage in the state.

Just to make sure their registration information is up to date, Florida voters can use this tool from the Department of State; for new registrations, the link is here.

And if you have some DemoBucks to share with Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, here’s her campaign site!

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Hear Us Out: What If Florida De-Elected Senator Rick Scott?

Let's Put Medicare-Frauding Florida Gov. Rick Scott In Charge Of Medicare, Oh Yeah Baby

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[WUSF / LAT / Slate / Florida Democratic Party / Florida Voter Lookup / Debbie Mucarsel-Powell / Image: ‘Dave,’ Creative Commons License 2.0]

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