Florida is a purple state, and has been for a while. That means that both Republicans and Democrats have a good chance of carrying the state. It is also a state that Republicans must have to win the presidency.
But the words/actions of Donald Trump could be pushing Florida into being a blue state -- one that Democrats can count on in the future. How is this happening?
Here's how Cameron Joseph at Talking Points Memo describes it:
President Trump’s comments about “shithole countries” like Haiti could hurt him most severely in his winter home of Florida, a state that’s also home to a large Haitian community. And it’s just the latest time he’s singled out a key voting bloc to antagonize in the state. His racially charged comments add insult to injury to the community, just weeks after his administration ended temporary status protection for 60,000 Haitian refugees living in the U.S. And that’s nothing compared to how much he’s infuriated the state’s fast-growing Puerto Rican community with his administration’s shoddy response to Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island. . . . There are more than 300,000 Haitian-born people living in Florida, including roughly 100,000 American citizens who are registered voters. . . . That’s a big voting bloc — as many people as Trump’s margin of victory in the state in 2016. But it’s nothing compared to the more than 1 million Puerto Ricans living in the state, a population that has more than doubled since 2000. Trump’s handling of the hurricane that devastated (and continues to devastate) the island territory has caused a major uptick in the Puerto Rican exodus. As of November, a whopping 200,000 Puerto Ricans had moved to the state since the hurricane — a number that’s undoubtedly increased since then. All Democrats need to do is register those American citizens to further hurt Republicans’ chances in the state.