Early reaction from Florida: Biden lost ground with crucial Cuban constituency
As vote totals in Miami-Dade, Florida's most populous county, show Biden underperforming compared to the 2016 election totals, political analysts there saw signs of a new phenomenon -- the migration of some segments of the Hispanic community further away from Democrats.
Home to the largest concentration of Cubans outside the island nation, Biden is carrying about 54% of the vote. Four years earlier, Hillary Clinton won the county with 63% of the vote.
"Biden is indeed underperforming here and the most logical explanation is the movement on the part of Latinos, especially Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans but also other South Americans who were very susceptible to the Republican message about socialism," said Eduardo Gamarra, a professor of politics and international relations at Florida International University in Miami. "Let's wait to see what the final numbers are in this county but at least for the moment, the big news is the Latino defection of the Democratic Party."
Experts told ABC News that Republican advertising during the closing weeks of the campaign targeted the Cuban community. Some of it pushed misleading messages about Biden, they said.
Alex Penelas, former mayor of Miami-Dade County and a Republican strategist, said "painting all Democrats as radical socialists definitely had an effect."
In Florida, more than half of Cuban voters backed Trump in 2016, according to Pew Research. And according to Florida International University's 2018 Cuba Poll, 54% of Cubans in South Florida were registered as Republicans in 2018.
Yamil Velez, an assistant professor of Political Science at Columbia University said he did believe Democrats did not sufficiently counter misinformation targeting the Cuban communities.
-ABC News' Laura Romero
