For Miguel Sánchez, the Hispanic community cannot limit itself to a single candidate or party.
“When people talk about the Hispanic vote, you can’t generalize it,” said the 19-year-old UF computer engineering student.
Once a longtime swing state, Florida has become redder since the 2016 presidential election and Gov. Ron DeSantis taking office in 2018. There were 5.2 million registered Republicans and 4.7 million registered Democrats in the state as of Aug. 22, according to the Florida Division of Elections website.
The image of the Republican Party as a party of anticommunism and limited government helped shift Florida’s Hispanic voters toward conservatism, contributing to the red wave that gripped the state in recent elections. In the 2022 gubernatorial election, DeSantis won 62% of the Hispanic vote in Miami-Dade County, a former Democratic stronghold.
Still, associating an entire demographic group with the Republican Party doesn’t paint an accurate picture of the Hispanic vote in largely blue counties like Alachua County, Sanchez said.
In Alachua County, there are 12,000 active Hispanic voters. Nearly 20% are registered Republicans, 46% are registered Democrats and 34% are registered with a third party or no party, according to the Florida Division of Elections.
Statewide, Florida has about 2 million active Hispanic voters. Of these voters, 27% are registered Republicans, 35% are registered Democrats, and 37% are registered with a third party or no party at all. Hispanic voters between the aged 18 and 29 favored Democratic candidates in the 2022 election cycle.
It is important to note that a voter’s registered political affiliation does not necessarily correspond to the candidate they are voting for.
Sanchez registered to vote Sept. 19 at the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections office, which was located at the Plaza of the Americas. He has been following politics since middle school, when former President Donald Trump announced his presidential campaign in 2015.
While Sanchez supported Trump because of his candor and focus on business, his support ended after Trump’s 2020 election fraud allegations.
Now, Sanchez’s views largely align with the Democratic Party’s agenda, with issues such as healthcare accessibility motivating him to get politically involved. He encourages the Hispanic community to participate in elections and embrace the democratic process.
“I feel like it’s your responsibility to vote to be represented,” he said. “We’re giving you an opportunity. It’s not fair if you don’t vote.
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Sanchez’s mother is from Colombia and his father is from the Dominican Republic. In Colombia, persistent political corruption discourages people from voting, he said of his mother’s experience.
The nine members of the country National Electoral Council is often the subject of controversy due to its failure to enforce electoral laws. Colombia also has a corruption perception index of 39 out of 100, according to International Transparencywhich can make potential voters hesitant to vote when they move to the United States
Even if Florida law preserves election privacy Aaron Klein, communications and outreach director for the Alachua County Elections Supervisor’s Office, said misinformation about voting privacy is a problem. Newly naturalized immigrants may be particularly hesitant to vote, he said.
“You will definitely encounter people who will be skeptical, who may even be afraid to register,” he said. “People may be coming from places where voting is not easy.”
It’s understandable that some Hispanic voters are wary, Klein said, especially Latino immigrants from countries like Cuba or Venezuela, who may have experienced rigged or corrupt elections in the past. But he assured Alachua County residents that the elections would be safe, accessible and fair.
However, there are also local Hispanic residents who are relatively enthusiastic about the U.S. electoral system, he said. Some naturalized immigrants choose to become election workers to learn more about the election process and become more politically involved, Klein said.
“Your vote is really important because it represents your contract with the leadership (and) with the community,” Klein said. “It means you are invested in the future of your community.”
The number of eligible Hispanic voters in Alachua County who cast ballots in the 2022 general election fell 15 percentage points from 2018. In the 2016 general election, 70% of eligible Hispanic voters in Alachua County voted. In the 2022 general election, this percentage fell to around 40%.
The county has made multiple efforts to make the voting process more accessible to non-English speakers, Klein said. The elections office website is translatable and there is a Spanish voter registration form and a hotline. Voters are also allowed to bring translators with them to vote in person.
The right to vote is the only way the Hispanic community can have its voice heard, said Jesus Martinez, a Gainesville muralist and co-founder of the mural production company Visionary FAM.
Although he is not affiliated with either political party, Martinez said that within the Hispanic community he notices a preference for the Republican Party.
Governor Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign marked the Democratic Party as Socialist and favoring corrupt governments. DeSantis’ campaign for re-election as governor also focused on the Hispanic vote with rhetoric about pandemic-related lies, economic opportunity and Spanish engagement on social media.
“It depends where they come from,” he said. “If they come from communist countries, the last thing they want to hear or see is policies that reflect something like that.”
Martinez is a first-generation Floridian. His grandparents immigrated to Florida from Cuba to escape the dictatorship of Fidel Castro. Castros frequently suppressed freedom of expression and eliminated all political groups except for the Communist Party during its reign of around five decades.
Latinos who have personal experience or family ties to the dictatorship, like Martinez, prefer limited government, he said.
Martinez is not aware of any obstacles within the American political system that oppress Spanish-speaking and Hispanic immigrant voters. For him, immigrating to the United States allowed his family to succeed economically.
His grandfather, who never learned to speak English, worked in a sugar mill in central Florida. By the time he retired, Martinez said he was an electrical engineer.
“In the United States, everyone has an equal opportunity to get ahead if they work and are smart,” he said. “You can do it.”
Natalie Triana, a 20-year-old UF political science major from Miami Lakes, is executive director of the Office of Political Affairs for the UF Hispanic Student Association. Her political identity leans more to the left because of her passion for advocating for social justice, she said.
For Triana, voting is at the heart of democracy, something Hispanic immigrants from countries plagued by political corruption may not have experienced before coming to the United States.
“The bare minimum you should do to have some political effectiveness would be to vote,” she said.
Zachary Carnell contributed to this report.
Contact Sophie Bailly at sbailly@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @sophia_bailly.
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Sophia Bailly is a second-year journalism student and covers politics for the Business Desk. Some of her favorite things include the Beatles, croissants and Agatha Christie books. When she’s not writing stories, she’s reading or going for a run.
