The Hill’s Reid Wilson said Friday that Florida Senate candidate Gov. Rick Scott (R) is likely to get more support from Hispanic voters than other Republican candidates running in the midterms.
“When people moved from Puerto Rico to the state of Florida, the day they showed up, there were welcome centers in the Orlando airport, in the Tampa airport and the Miami airport. Those were welcome centers set up by Gov. Rick Scott’s office,” Wilson told Hill.TV’s Jamal Simmons on “What America’s Thinking.”
“He has made a real effort to reach out at a time when the rest of the Republican Party has not done a great job in talking to Hispanics,” he continued. “Don’t sleep on that. Rick Scott is going to do better among Hispanic voters than I think Republicans up and down the ballot are going to do.”
Scott is seeking to unseat Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) in November.
An August poll conducted by the Hispanic Federation, Latino Victory Fund, Alianza, Power 4 Puerto Rico and Global Strategy Group showed Scott and Nelson in a virtual dead heat among Latino voters. The poll showed Nelson with a slim lead, 44 percent to 41 percent, over Scott, well within the survey’s margin of error of 4.9 percentage points.
An AARP–Univision–Bendixen & Amandi International survey released late last month showed Scott with high favorability ratings among Puerto Rican voters ages 50 and up. The poll also showed wide support for Scott among Cuban-Americans.
The same poll showed Scott with a 13-point lead over Nelson among Hispanic voters over the age of 50.
— Julia Manchester
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