Republican party's play for Latino voters is paying off. Hispanics explain why.

MILWAUKEE — At a presidential debate party he organized last month in western Miami-Dade's vecindarios, Juan Fiol didn't hesitate when asked why former President Donald Trump's White House comeback campaign has drawn legions of Latino voters.

"In Miami, it's always been, and will always be, until there is freedom in Cuba, against socialism," he said, pointing to the largely Cuban-American, and older, crowd at the Mojitos restaurant that evening. "That's our number one reason, and it's always been our reason and it's always going to be our reason."

It's a mantra that has duct-taped many of South Florida's virulently anti-communist exiles to the Republican Party, yes. But across the United States today, the Grand Old Party, polls show, has the attention of a broader swath of Latino voters who represent a multitude of nationalities, interests, beliefs, life experiences and cultural differences.

The adhesive now is not one issue, party strategists at this week's Republican National Convention in Milwaukee claim, but a broad menu of policies and mottos for populations that defy monolithic categorizations. And whose daily worries are in sync with concerns shared by the rest of the country, ultimately cooking a GOP melting pot message for all.

"There is not a 'Latino' vote. Latinos vote in different ways," said Jaime Florez, the Republican National Committee's Hispanic outreach director. "And at this particular moment, we're not just Latinos. We're already Americans, we live in this country, and we're facing a very difficult economy and many other things."

So in 2024, Florez said, the GOP is stressing everyday life issues - inflation, crime and the unfairness of an "open border."

"We're using the same message for the rest of the country because what is really moving Hispanics is the reality in the country," he said.

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As Reagan said, just a matter of time before Latinos realized they're Republicans

Republican Party officials gathered in Milwaukee say their traditional family values positions appeal to the exponentially growing numbers of Hispanic evangelicals.

They add that Trump's often repeated calls for "common sense" government draws those who own small businesses and executives at larger enterprises alike. Same for the emphasis on safe streets and neighborhoods and the aspirational rhetoric of a rugged individual's want to control their fate rather than depending on a paternalistic state, they insisted.

By and large, said Florez, U.S. voters of Hispanic origin, descent and identification have come to accept what Ronald Reagan claimed decades ago — they were Republicans at the core but had not realized it yet. That's why the number of Latino Republican voter registrations have risen while the polling gap with Democrats has narrowed, he said.

Early this month, a nationwide poll by Florida Atlantic University and Mainstreet Research found President Joe Biden topping Trump among Hispanic voters by just 3.8 percentage points, 38.6% to 34.8%. In a survey of Latinos in key Midwest battlegrounds last month, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Trump trailed Biden by just 6.6 points, 43.2% to 36.6%.

Those numbers, if they pan out at the polls in November, would be a sharp departure, and spell enormous trouble for Biden. According to one survey based on data from the past 14 presidential elections collected by the American National Election Survey, Hispanic-identifying voters have not gone red at rates approaching more than 20%.

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Give me your tired your poor, but especially those looking for safe communities

Bertica Cabrera Morris said she would not be surprised if Tuesday night's RNC convention theme - public safety - caught the attention of people in the communities around her.

The Orlando resident is a Cuban-American but identifies closely with Puerto Rico, where she has spent a considerable amount of time and where her father is buried. In Central Florida, where she works helping developers assemble plans and teams for major construction projects like stadiums and airport terminals, Cabrera Morris has watched the migration of Puerto Ricans, and their political transformation.

"As soon as they land in Orlando, they change their voter affiliations to Republicans," she said.

A large factor in that decision, she believes, is "security, security, security." Puerto Ricans moving from the territory to the mainland embrace the GOP message of safe streets and communities. The homicide rate on the island in 2022 was 19.3 per 100,000 people - way more than the 7.2 per 100,000 rate in Florida for the same year.

"They have left Puerto Rico because they feel unsafe," she said. "They feel they are more safe here, and they feel their money is more secure."

Luis Figueroa, a commercial real estate broker, said crime in Puerto Rico has been just one factor driving people out of the island and to the Republican Party.

One, he said, is that people were fed up with "radical" COVID policies. He added they resented the incompetence of an electric utility that was exposed by hurricanes, but given a free pass by the governor. Then there was the corruption scandal that rocked the island's government five years ago, again revealing malfeasance and improprieties.

"What they find here is a safe haven for common sense policies," said Figueroa, who moved to Florida from the island in 2007 with just $100 to his name. "What they find, too, is stability. They get to breathe that fresh air and to be a little bit more stable day-to-day in addition to security."

Conservative Latinos hear 'Obamacare' and they ask, what's the catch?

In the waning weeks of the 2020 election campaign, former President Barack Obama ventured to northern Miami-Dade County for a rally in support of Biden, his former vice president, and running mate, then-U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris. In his stump speech that day, Obama touted the Affordable Care Act, the health insurance measure he signed into law in his first term.

Obamacare has been popular in Florida, which has often led the nation in its health insurance plan enrollments. But even with all that, Democrats have seen their leverage erode precipitously.

Ariel Solorzano, a Nicaraguan-American living in Miami, said it's because the idea of government largesse is not what immigrants, refugees and exiles coming to America — legally — aspire to.

"The idea is to have economic freedom," said the data security specialist who has lived in the United States since the age of 17. "Let me work. Let me protect my family."

Solorzano said that when he, and others he knows, hear politicians offering promises and government programs, suspicion enters their mind.

"Basically it's they give me, and what's the catch?" he said.

He and others are Trump Republicans, he said, because they oppose what they see as a Democratic Party penchant for centralizing power, encumbering private enterprise, and stifling freedom of expression.

"Everything that has made this country great, they are taking us down the ladder in the wrong direction, lowering the index of economic freedom as opposed to going up the ladder.

GOP a magnet for evangelical Hispanics who reject LGBTQ agenda?

While the GOP has long pitched itself as the family values party, Trump has aggressively courted evangelicals, and especially Latino believers. In January 2020, he helicoptered aboard Marine One from Mar-a-Lago to southern Miami-Dade to address the El Rey Jesus megachurch to spotlight the "Evangelicals for Trump" coalition.

Evangelicals and conservative Christians cheered the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing individual states to pursue restraints on abortion and other reproductive measures. Lately, they have also been at the forefront of moving the party toward the right on LGBTQ+ issues.

Last year, a Pew Research Center study estimated that 10 million U.S. Hispanics considered themselves as evangelical or Protestant. The share of Hispanic Republicans that said they were "evangelical Protestants” was nearly a third, 28%.

Like non-Hispanic evangelical Christians, the Latino segment of faith voters is speaking out - and voting.

"Hispanics want to see strong families," said David Borrero, who worked as a government grants manager for a South Florida municipality. "They don't identify with the LGBTQ agenda. They don't want that shoved down their throats."

Borrero, who won a Florida state House seat representing a northwest Miami-Dade district, blames higher education for selling a "confusing" gender identification narrative to Gen Zers. Now, he said, you are seeing a counter-reaction, and a surge of alignment with Republican positions espousing traditional gender roles based on biology.

"Identifying as a man when you're a woman is morally wrong and incorrect. Traditionally it's never been part of the culture or the norm from countries that Hispanics come from in Latin America," said Borrero. "The Republican Party represents the views of the traditional family values. It's easy for Hispanics to say, 'Oh the Republican Party believes what I believe so let me identify with them.'"

Inclusiveness as well as simplicity and clarity in government regulations

Fabio Andrade manages government relations for a commercial charter plane company. What Latinos most want, and what they find so alluring about Trump's message, is equity, inclusiveness and fair-play, he said.

"I just like it that they were very inclusive and they were not looking down at me," said Andrade, who was born in Colombia. "They were very much my values, which have been hard work and work hard, to do for yourself what you can do for yourself don't wait for someone to give you a hand out."

He particularly embraces Trump's call for a "common sense" approach to business regulation and governance he said "resonates with me a lot." In Latin America, many times people rebel against state rules and policies because, he said, they don't want to comply or are looking for an advantage.

"In that regard, no, that's not what we want," he said, explaining that the ask here is for rules not to be constantly modified and made ever-more complex. "What we want is, tell me what the process is and I will work within the process and make it simple the process for me to be here and succeed."

Biden administration and Democratic policies that have resulted in complicated rules have stacked the deck against business and reminded people of why they left their countries of origin in the first place. But Andrade said he has never been overtly partisan, having supported a local political figure, Alex Penelas, a Democrat, and a Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Republican.

"What's happening in their homeland they don't want it to happen here. And they see a few situations similar patterns that is happening," he said. "That's why Trump is appealing to Latinos."

Immigration, yes, but legal, vetted and for people who want to work in America

Latino support for Trump, and his long-held beliefs in tough border control may seem contradictory, but it's not, say his supporters.

As she waited on June 14 for a rally to celebrate Trump's 78th birthday to begin, Marianela Joli spoke about how she came to the United States in 1990 with her father and three sisters from the Dominican Republic.

Joli, who works in immigration law along with her sister, said she particularly embraced Trump's message of hard work and a secure border.

"I work in an immigration office. I have learned a lot about people there. I listen to them to know if they are really coming with a true purpose to grow, or to seek handouts," said Joli, who added that two of her three sons are serving in the U.S. military. "You come to this country to work."

Andrade notes that his parents complied with the legal requirements and did not move to the United States until permission to enter the country was granted. Through the years, he has had family visit from Colombia and sometimes they ask to stay, but are told by him and relatives here that unless they have permission they need to go home, hire an attorney and do it legally.

"We think it's the right way to do things," he said. "Values are very important, family is key, and so is rule of law."

The flow of millions of people through the U.S. southern border is unsustainable and unsafe, he said. He questions how much vetting can be carried out with people who have little or no documentation. He knows many others harbor the same fears.

"A lot of the Latinos, no matter where they're from, we don't like illegal immigration," he said. "We believe in understanding who's coming through the pipeline. A lot of us have family in the process that are being left behind because people are cutting in front."

Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at [email protected]. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump, GOP play for Latino voters pays off. Hispanics explain why.