At the Republican National Convention last week, Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez painted a dire picture of America under Joe Biden. Reliving the story of her family’s decision to flee Cuba, she warned of a looming “socialist takeover of our nation” and urged voters to turn out for President Donald Trump.
“We can go down a dark road of chaos and government control,” said Nuñez, the chair of Latinos for Trump. “Or we can choose the path of freedom and opportunity that was paved by those who sacrificed everything to preserve the American Dream for future generations. Let us join our president in his vow that America will never be a socialist country!”
To win the 2020 election, Trump needs Florida ― no Republican has won the White House without winning the state since 1924, and given Trump’s falling polling numbers in several key battlegrounds, it’s nearly impossible to come up with a combination of outcomes that gets Trump across the 270-vote electoral college threshold without Florida’s 29.
And to win Florida, the president likely needs Cuban Americans like Nuñez to support him in numbers similar to those of 2016, when 54% of Florida’s Cuban American voters backed him over his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.
That has set up a furious fight between Trump and Biden for this familiar group of Floridians, who may no longer be the largest bloc of Latino voters in the Sunshine State but are still the most influential. And “socialism” has become a key focus of the dispute, especially as Trump has waged cynical battles to bring down socialist Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and cripple the Communist government in Cuba. | 
