MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. ā Although Joe Biden won Miami-Dade County by seven percentage points in Tuesdayās Presidential Election, he terribly underperformed there.
Hillary Clinton won Miami-Dade by 30 points in 2016.
That difference may have cost Biden the highly contested Sunshine State.
The shift, for months, was apparent in Miami-Dadeās Latino neighborhoods.
āOur opponents want to turn us into communist Cuba or socialist Venezuela, and weāre not going to let that happen,ā President Trump said last weekend in Opa-locka.
Voters in Miami-Dade responded to four years' worth of Trumpās unrelenting attention. Bidenās deficit was first telegraphed in September by pollster Fernand Amandi of Bendixen & Amandi International.
āThat one on one engagement where Trump tries to engage more on a visceral, emotional level as the defender, the strongman, whoās going to solve every problem and make everything great, make the economy great, there is a wave buying into that,ā Amandi said.
Bidenās slip in Miami-Dade compared to the votes cast for Clinton in 2016 was a likely factor in Democrats losing Florida in the Presidential Election, as well as losing two incumbent Miami-Dade Congressional seats.
Former Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez defeated Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, and former journalist Maria Elvira Salazar upset Donna Shalala.
Republicans framed the narrative, with the socialist and communist labels that hit hard in Latino communities that know dictatorships first-hand.
āHowever absurd the charges, and it is an absurd one, we all know democrats are not socialist or communist, itās ridiculous on its face, but you have to push back on those charges,ā Amandi said.