Red wave takes off in Florida where Latino support for DeSantis and Rubio skyrocket

Hispanic Americans may determine the balance of power in Florida where Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio continue to garner support from the Latino community against the Democratic rivals, Reps. Charlie Crist and Val Demings in the final stretch of this year’s midterm election.

A recent Telemundo/LX poll shows that Hispanic voters will be supporting DeSantis over Crist in today’s final chapter of the 2022 midterm elections, a good omen for the Florida governor who has been considering a run for president in 2024.

The bilingual survey of 625 likely Hispanic voters has DeSantis leading Crist 51% to 44% with 56% of respondents showing approval of the governor’s efforts in Tallahassee.

Similarly, a recent poll conducted by Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight has Rubio ahead of Demings by a stunning 8.8 percentage points, leading 53.3% to 43.5%. Nine other polls all had the Florida senator ahead of his Democratic challenger, signaling that the Cuban American leader will return to Congress next year.

Polls also show that DeSantis is light years today from where he was in 2018 when he lost the Hispanic vote by 10 points, according to exit polling conducted by NBC News.

While Democrats hoped Hurricane Ian would show cracks in the Navy JAG’s armor, DeSantis’s unwavering determination to pull the Sunshine State together only increased his support.

Also helping the Florida governor with Hispanics are his strong ties to the Latino community in Miami where Cuban Americans and Venezuelan Americans are proactively pushing Republican support due to growing socialist rhetoric from progressive candidates in the Democratic Party.

If DeSantis wins in Miami-Dade County, he will be the first gubernatorial candidate to do so in 20 years. Democrats lost ground in the once true blue county during the Trump presidency as evidenced by a devastating 20 point drop from the 27 point lead Hillary Clinton won in 2016 and the mere 7 points Joe Biden achieved in 2020.

Crist however will make some Latino gains with the Sunshine State’s Puerto Rican community as the Telemundo/LX poll reported that they support the Democratic candidate over DeSantis 59% to 37%.

Still, DeSantis is ahead with independent Latino voters by a whopping 22-point margin.

While Democrats have desperately tried to push the Supreme Court’s recent Dobbs v. Jackson decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, pollsshow the main issues Latinos continue to focus on are the economy, inflation and rising violent crime.

Polls conducted by Florida based universities are also showing the Florida governor with a commanding lead.

A recent poll conducted by Florida Atlantic University reports that DeSantis’s overall approval rating was 53% with registered voters and 57% of respondents University of South Florida poll conducted in October found most likely voters either “strongly approve” or “somewhat approve” of how the Florida governor has handled jobs and the economy.

While Florida’s governor has pulled ahead significantly, Rubio seems to have all but secured reelection as his poll numbers have ascended day to day since he successfully debated Demings at a South Florida college auditorium.

During that debate Rubio hammered Demings for her lack of legislative accomplishments while itemizing his Congressional achievements while also repelling his opponent as she tried to go on the offensive.

FiveThirtyEight has slated Rubio ahead of his Democratic challenger by 8.8 percentage points, leading 53.3% to 43.5%, which far exceed the usual 3-4% margin of error.

Nine other polls all have Rubio ahead including Data for Progress which gives the Republican senator a 12-point lead over Demings.

A poll conducted two weeks ago by the University of North Florida had DeSantis ahead by 14% said that while 4% of those polled did not have a clear decision, another1% polled were voting for a third party candidate.