Florida Hispanics back DeSantis on curbing illegal immigration

NBC News reports that the poll shows DeSantis at 51 percent favorability ahead of Crist's 44 percent. Hispanic voters also give DeSantis a 56 percent approval rating, with 44 percent disapproving, as those polls noted positive marks for DeSantis' handling of Hurricane Ian and how he flew illegal immigrants to Martha's Vineyard.

DeSantis' positive pickups in the Hispanic community reflect another recent poll that showed the Democrat party is shedding Hispanic support at a rate of 50 percent since 2012.

NBC reports that in Florida, "Latinos have shifted rightward since 2018 as Republicans tied their opponents to Democratic Socialists like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a potent message for voters who fled leftist regimes or violence in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Colombia."

Floridian Democrats had come to rely on a unified coalition of minority voters and as Hispanic voters shift Republican it strongly shifts the state to GOP leadership.

The recent survey was conducted October 17-22 by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy and one of their pollsters, Brad Coker, said, "There are lots of Hispanic voters in this state who really like the governor’s style, this strongman who won’t back down. And Crist has no mojo."

The poll, which surveyed 625 Hispanic voters, showed that they were 50 percent in favor of how the governor handled the Martha's Vineyard incident, especially with Hispanic immigrants who approved by 52 percent..

A Cuban Republican strategist, Giancarlo Sopo, said, "Too many Democrats think Hispanics like uncontrolled mass migration and they couldn't be more wrong."

"Those of us who remember Miami in the '80s and '90s remember the aftermath of Mariel when 120,000 people showed up in the community over a span of six months. What we're now seeing at the border is two Mariels per month," Sopo added.

Hispanic voters also approve of how DeSantis handled Covid with 64 percent.

Cuban Americans favor DeSantis at 72 percent, and Puerto Rican Americans go for DeSantis at 59 percent. Roughly all the other Hispanic voting groups favor DeSantis at a percentage of 53 percent