Don’t expect all Latinos to vote for DeSantis in 2024

Tio Ron, is that a thing now? Ay dos mios. Say it isn’t so. If we’re going by the numbers though, it may be so. It may be time to anoint Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as Latino voters’ new favorito Republican. Look, I love my people, mi gente. Really I do, in all their crazy idiosyncrasies, insecurities and idiocies, but I’m not going to follow them to DeSantis-land. That’s a small-minded world after all. 

As a journalist who’s covered the Latino vote for more than 30 years, let me tell you what’s up, or if you prefer, que paso. I’ve written hundreds of columns about those relatively rare cases, when a big chunk of Latinos have voted for a, gasp, Republican. And if it’s the right Republican, by that, I mean, not crazy, not racist, not extreme, I have applauded the trend. Even when I took heat for it from friends on the Latino left. Today, we might call these Republicans who got substantial Latino support normy Republicans. They were normal. 

They managed to promote tax cuts and responsible spending and small government without going all racist and calling Mexican immigrants rapists, criminals or drug traffickers. Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, even inexplicably, give the devil his due, former President Donald Trump. They all got in the neighborhood of 30% of the Latino vote. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but it is. 

Imagine getting the support of 30% of a constituency that your opponent expects to get 100% of. That’s not nothing. In the GOP Hall of Fame, you’ll find for President Ronald Reagan, who got 40% of the Latino vote in his 1984 re-election; former President George W. Bush, who got 44% in his 2004 re-election; former Arizona senator John McCain, who in his 1998 re-election to the Senate, got 62% of the Latino vote; and of course, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who in 1998 earned more than 65% of the Latino vote. 

Should we now add to that sacred roster, the name of Ron DeSantis. What do the kids say now? Oh, yes, as if. That obnoxious, unlikable, opportunistic social skills-lacking little runt in Tallahassee gets his kicks by using poor Latino refugees as political props, shipping them off COD to Martha’s Vineyard. To me as a Mexican American, he’s persona non grata. So I don’t speak for all Latinos. 

DeSantis a likely 2024 contender for the GOP nomination for president, may not be Donald Trump’s favorite person right now as they get ready for a cage match in the octagon. Yet Latinos in Florida seem to like DeSantis mucho. I know what you’re thinking, but Florida is not just for Cubans anymore. Have you been to Miami lately? It’s the U.S. capital of Latin America with Colombians, Venezuelans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and others. A lot of these folks give DeSantis high marks for his competency in dealing with natural disasters and COVID. His strength and toughness and handling the media and the liberal establishment and his willingness to throw hard punches at his opponents, both in Florida and Washington. 

That hard edge goes a long way with Latino men in particular. They liked Reagan, they liked Trump, and now they liked DeSantis. In his recent re-election, DeSantis won about 65% – 65% – of the vote in majority Latino precincts. 

That included a resounding victory in the overwhelming Latino Miami suburb of Hialeah, where he took more than 78% of the vote. Those numbers are unreal. DeSantis deserves credit for making such deep inroads into the Latino community in Florida. Respect, governor, or as we say, respeto. 

This is a big country folks. Mexican Americans and Mexicans who make up more than 60% of Latino population in the United States, they live on a different planet from our cousins in the Caribbean and South America. If tough-guy Ron runs for president in 2024, my tribe won’t be charmed. Rather, faced with a White House bid by Ron DeSantis, they’re sure to give the mean little runt the spanking that he so richly deserves.