Bloomberg editors warned Democrats in an op-ed last Friday that they should start worrying about Republicans gaining ground with Latino voters — a demographic they once took for granted.
Citing the recent landslide victory by Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida, whereby he flipped the once blue-dominated Miami-Dade County, the editors warned that Democrats could be in for a rude awakening if they do not take heed over the rightward shift of Latino voters.
“As much as Democrats might want to exult over last week’s midterm-election results — one of the better recent outcomes for the party in power — they can’t ignore the drubbing they took in Florida, a longtime purple-colored battleground that has now turned solid red,” the editors wrote.
“Without a prompt assessment of what went wrong, the party risks losing the country’s third most populous state for the foreseeable future,” they added.
DeSantis not only won reelection in the state of Florida, he won it by nearly 20 points — even more than Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom won in the Blue-heavy state of California. The Bloomberg editors credited this massive victory on the Republican Party’s sudden appeal with Latino voters, particularly with immigrants from hard-left countries like Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.
![Incumbent Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis arrives to speak to supporters at an election night party after winning his race for reelection in Tampa, Fla., Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)](https://media.breitbart.com/media/2022/11/ron-desantis-florida-gov-nov-8-2022-ap-photo.jpg)
Incumbent Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis arrives to speak to supporters at an election night party after winning his race for reelection in Tampa, FL, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
“Not only did Governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Marco Rubio handily win reelection, both trounced their opponents in Miami-Dade, the state’s most populous county, with 2.7 million people, more than two-thirds of whom are Hispanic,” the editors wrote.
“In doing so, they underlined an awkward trend: Democrats’ brand with Latino voters is collapsing in Florida — and shows worrisome signs nationwide,” they added.
For all the hand-waving that Democrats did over DeSantis sending a plane full of Venezuelan migrants to the liberal elite enclave of Martha’s Vineyard, it turns out that Latino voters loved it.
“Even DeSantis’s most egregious stunt — sending a plane full of Venezuelan migrants to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts — drew solid Latino support,” the Bloomberg team wrote.
![Martha's Vineyard, MA - September 15: A group of migrants huddle on a sidewalk in front of St. Andrews Episcopal Church. Two planes of migrants from Venezuela arrived suddenly Wednesday night on Martha's Vineyard. (Photo by Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)](https://media.breitbart.com/media/2022/09/migrants-marthas-vineyard-from-florida-sept22-gettyiimages.jpg)
A group of migrants huddle on a sidewalk in front of St. Andrews Episcopal Church. Two planes of migrants from Venezuela arrived suddenly Wednesday night on Martha’s Vineyard. (Photo by Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
“That should be a reminder for Democrats that Hispanics aren’t a monolith and immigration isn’t their defining issue,” they added. “In fact, one recent survey found immigration ranked ninth among Latinos’ concerns, trailing behind the economy, education, violent crime and so on. In trying to reverse these trends, Democrats need to stop taking Latinos for granted and start focusing on what they actually care about.”
The Bloomberg editors also scolded the Democrats and the woke left for the use of the much-derided term “Latinx,” which Latino voters have overwhelmingly rejected, according to every poll.
“In trying to reverse these trends, Democrats need to stop taking Latinos for granted and start focusing on what they actually care about. A good example is the au courant term ‘Latinx,’ which is ubiquitous among party professionals but which only 3% of Hispanics adopt for themselves,” the editors wrote.
The editors concluded that Democrats need to prioritize Latino voters or else “write off one of the biggest prizes on the Electoral College map.”
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