Gov. Wanda Vázquez asks Puerto Rican diaspora to vote for President Trump [Miami Herald] Syra Ortiz-Blanes
https://news.yahoo.com/gov-wanda-v-zquez-asks-221249299.html
Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez endorsed President Donald Trump in a televised interview on Monday and rallied Puerto Ricans in the diaspora to vote for him in the Nov. 3 presidential election.
“I ask all Puerto Ricans that are listening to go vote. They have to go vote, exercise their right to vote, and evaluate who has Puerto Ricans and their needs in the hardest moment…It’s Donald Trump,” said Vázquez in an interview with the local Telemundo station.
Regarding Trump’s throwing of paper towels at a crowd of Puerto Rican residents after Hurricane Maria in 2017, Vázquez, a pro-statehood Republican, said that people should move forward because “no one is perfect.”
Vázquez, who lost the island’s local pro-statehood primary in mid-August, was sworn in as governor after former governor Ricardo Rosselló was forced to resign in the summer of 2019, following weeks of historic protests calling for him to step down.
Vázquez was supposed to travel to Central Florida and participate in a Trump campaign rally in Sanford last Friday. However, Trump’s rally was canceled after he tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Vázquez said that besides campaigning, she had also planned to meet with the president to discuss “subjects about Puerto Rico.”
“Biden thinks so little of Boricuas that he believes that by playing ‘Despacito’ we will forget how his horrible policies hurt Puerto Ricans,” said Juan Carlos Benitez, a Latinos for Trump board member who is Puerto Rican, of Vázquez’s endorsement. “But Hispanics have not forgotten how Biden presided over the most ‘despacito’ economic growth since the Great Depression.”
Central Florida, where Sanford is located, is a hub of the state’s Puerto Rican community. According to Census data from the American Community Survey, there are about 385,000 Puerto Ricans in Orange, Seminole, Osceola, and Lake counties.
In recent months, both the Trump and Biden campaigns have been battling for the Puerto Rican vote in Florida. Polling data from Equis Research, a Democratic Latino research firm, shows that “nearly two-thirds of Puerto Rican registered voters in Florida disapprove of Donald Trump,” and that 63% intended to vote for Biden.
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