Trump Wins Former Dem Stronghold Miami-Dade By Double Digits

Former President Donald Trump flipped Florida’s Miami-Dade County by approximately 11 points after losing the county in 2020 by roughly 7 points.

Florida was called shortly after 8:00 p.m. EST for Trump, with The New York Times (NYT) reporting Trump had an 11-point lead in the county with 95 percent of the reporting in. Miami-Dade, once a Democrat stronghold, also flipped for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022 by 11 points. The last Republican presidential candidate to win Miami-Dade was George H. W. Bush in 1988.

Osceola County, which is majority Hispanic and has a “very large Puerto Rican population,” also narrowly flipped for Trump by 1.5 points, despite Democrats’ Hail Mary play to pit Puerto Ricans against Trump after a comedian cracked a joke at a recent Trump rally about Puerto Rico’s waste management. Researchers at the University of Central Florida’s Puerto Rico Research Hub recently released a poll finding 85 percent of the Puerto Rican respondents said they planned on voting for Vice President Kamala Harris, according to Click Orlando.

Research Hub director Dr. Fernando Rivera said the jokes “really touched a very sensitive topic” and would have “ramifications.”

The county broke for Biden by nearly 14 points in 2020.

This time, Trump won Florida by 13 points and more than 1.4 million votes, according to The Times. The Miami Herald reported “no presidential candidate has won the state with such a large advantage in 36 years.”

Republican political analyst Cesar Grajales told the Miami-Herald that immigrants in South Florida who fled their native countries “don’t want to live that situation again” and were therefore moving toward Trump.

“They see in Trump a strong character, and feel that with him they will have that security with him,” Grajales said.