Biden’s Latest Move Hurts Him Even More With Latinos
President Joe Biden’s decision to remove a Colombian militant group from the State Department’s terrorist list has Florida Democrats worried about political fallout among Colombian-Americans in the state.
SO WHAT
Democrats can’t seem to stop alienating Latinos, the country’s fastest growing minority.
WHAT HAPPENED
The Biden administration officially removed the Revolutionary Forces of Colombia, or FARC, from the list of foreign terrorist organizations Tuesday, but not before stirring up a “hornets nest” in Florida’s Democratic politics, per Politico.
The Biden administration this week stepped on a political landmine in Florida over its plan to remove the Colombian guerrilla group FARC from a list of foreign terrorist organizations.
w/@sabrod123 https://t.co/zezYsBCKtk
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) November 25, 2021
Florida State Sen. Annette Taddeo, a Colombian-American Democrat running for governor, told Politico: “This is terrible. It’s bad policy. It’s bad politics,” Florida State Sen. Annette Taddeo, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate and a Colombian-American, told Politico.
Rep. Charlie Crist of Florida, a former governor who is running again, joined Colombian-Americans in being “deeply troubled” by the Biden administration’s plan, saying, “FARC earned its terrorist designation.”
Florida Republicans, including Sen. Marco Rubio and Gov. Ron DeSantis, pounced.
Joe Biden's decision to legitimize the Marxist terror group FARC paves the way for Castrochavismo in Colombia and is a slap in the face to Colombian-Americans.
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) November 24, 2021
TRENDING RED?
Not just Florida: While nearly a third of the 1.2 million Colombian-Americans live in Florida, according to the Pew Research Center, about 168,000 live in New York and 144,000 live in New Jersey, where the Democrats nearly lost the governor’s mansion this month.
- New Jersey Democrats were worried about the Latino vote going into the election.
Not just Colombians: The 2020 and 2021 elections saw Republicans make significant inroads with Latinos nationally.
- As The Economist recently explained, “Ronald Reagan quipped that hard-working, religious, communism-hating Hispanics were Republican even if they didn’t know it. In his different way, Mr Trump has hammered those same issues.”