Springfield rhetoric reverberates in Florida’s Haitian community

Republican attacks on Haitian migrants in Ohio are reverberating in Florida, where Democrats are hoping to mobilize the country’s largest Haitian American electorate to close the gap in their uphill battle for statewide races. 

Over a third of all 1.1 million Haitian Americans live in Florida, with over half dwelling in the state’s three major counties in the southern portion: Palm Beach County, Broward County and Miami-Dade County. 

“We contribute a lot to this country, and I think it’s about time they recognize our presence, our participation,” said Ronald Surin, the president of the Haitian American Democratic Club of Broward County.  

Beginning last month, Trump and his vice-presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (R-Oh.) pushed a false conspiracy about Haitian immigrants in Ohio eating cats and dogs, putting national focus on Springfield and Haitians as a whole. Many Haitians in Florida have taken notice, said Surin. 

“We’ve been more successful lately in trying to motivate and convince people, especially at the grassroots [level], for people to feel the necessity not only to register to vote, but to be ready and willing to go out and cast a vote for the Democratic ticket,” Surin said.

No Democratic presidential candidate has won Florida since 2012, and Harris’s chances in the state do not appear bright. Trump leads Harris by 4.7 points in The Hill/Decision Desk HQ polling average. A recent Siena College/New York Times poll found Trump ahead by 13 points.

Still, Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla), who represents parts of Palm Beach and Broward counties and co-chairs the Haiti Caucus in Congress, said the rhetoric is giving a boost to Vice President Harris.

“At first, I was upset with Trump and JD Vance, but then I sat back and I said, ‘Oh, now you made it personal,’” she said. “We are mobilizing, and that’s what it’s going to come down to. No one needs to convince the Haitian person to vote for Kamala. Trump did that.”  

Cherfilus-McCormick and other members of the House Haiti Caucus introduced a resolution last month condemning the GOP rhetoric.

“When I go to churches and I have conversations with [the Haitian community], you can see the anger on their faces. You can see that they want action,” she said. 

Trump’s anti-Haitian comments date back to the beginning of his term in the White House. In 2017, he suggested that Haitian immigrants “all have AIDS.”  He also referred to Haiti, alongside El Salvador and some African countries, as “s—hole” countries in 2018.

The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

Rep. Debbie Murcarsel-Powell (D-Fla.), who is challenging Sen. Rick Scott (R- Fla.), has highlighted the Trump comments.

“How dare the former president attack, target, harass Haitian Americans in this country with hateful rhetoric,” she said at a rally in Miami last month. “This is about power. It’s about dividing us. It’s about putting us down. We are not going back.” 

Scott, for his part, called the situation in Springfield “scary for the people that live there,” in an interview with Breitbart News Network. Asked about the impact of Trump’s comments after a roundtable in Miami, he said the Florida Haitian community was full of “great leaders” and “great families” before shifting the conversation to the Biden-Harris border crisis.    

Scott leads Mucarsel-Powell by 3.7 points in The Hill/DDHQ average. The recent Siena College/New York Times poll found Scott with a nine-point lead.

Sharon Austin, political science professor at the University of Florida, says the voting power of the Haitian community has grown in the last 20 years as more immigrants become citizens and start families. While Austin said Haitians tend to lean more Democratic as a whole, they are more likely to vote Republican than some other minority communities.

Haitian migrants have been ingrained in the south Florida community for over 50 years, fleeing the poverty-stricken country and its dictatorship in the 1970s. Chantalle Verna, professor of history at Florida International University, said that over the decades, the Haitian community’s politics have been shifted and shaped by the US policies toward Haiti.  

“It’s important that people recognize that it has not been a one-ticket community,” she said. 

In 2016, many Haitian Americans opposed former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s bid for the White House, Verna said. Many Haitians saw their ballot decision as a vote against Clinton instead of a vote in favor of Trump.

Clinton, along with her husband, former President Clinton, are widely seen among Haitian Americans as complicit in the international community’s largely ineffective reconstruction efforts after the 2010 earthquake, due to the Clinton Foundation’s large role at the time, and Hillary’s key backing of disgraced former Haitian President Michel Martelly.

However, the Obama and Biden administration’s support for expanding temporary protected immigrant status as well as the DREAM Act has expanded Democratic appeal in the years since, according to Austin. 

Despite the uphill climb, some Democrats see an opportunity for Democrats to win Florida, especially with abortion rights on the ballot this year. 

Dinah Escarment, the vice president of the Haitian Democratic Caucus of Miami-Dade County, said the Democrat’s switch to Harris as the presidential nominee back in July came with a fresh wave of motivation.

As a daughter of a Haitian immigrant and a small business owner in a large immigrant community, Escarment said hateful rhetoric is nothing new, but that hearing it from a presidential candidate was different. 

“My heart is with my people. This election is everything to me. How we vote is how everything will turn out for us in this small community here,” she said. “This rhetoric has gotten everyone out of their sleep.”