Donald Trump once again swept Florida, and with more than 95 percent of the vote tallied in Osceola County, Trump is leading Kamala Harris 50.2 percent to 48.7 percent. That margin may not seem too significant at first glance, but for two reasons, it’s big.
First, recent history shows Republicans not performing well in this part of Florida. In 2016, Osceola County broke for Hillary Clinton by a whopping 25 points. In 2020, Joe Biden carried it by a strong 14 points. Today, just four years later, it’s effectively a tie, with a slight Republican edge.
Second, roughly 1 in 3 county residents is Puerto Rican, as of 2020. In fact, Osceola County, more than half of which is Hispanic, represents the largest concentration of Puerto Ricans outside the U.S. island territory.
That territory is basically a floating pile of trash — or so said insult comic Tony Hinchcliffe during Donald Trump’s massive Madison Square Garden rally, among plenty of other jabs at everyone else’s expense. But Trump’s detractors took their cue, recycling their cries of Republican “racism” and claiming Democrats comprise the party of unity and decency. Puerto Rico thus became a defining part of Democrats’ closing message — that is, until Biden torpedoed it.
On a Harris campaign call with Latino voters at the end of October, Biden went on a Puerto Rico tangent and ended up calling Trump supporters, also known as half the country, “garbage.”
“The only garbage I see floating out there is [Trump’s] supporters,” Biden
