Larry Griffin
Republican Party of Florida Chair Blaise Ingoglia is energized for the final month of the election.
Two significant parts of the RPOF’s final push before election’s end, he told FloridaPolitics.com, will be winning the Hispanic vote statewide, especially from new immigrants, and taking the I-4 Corridor in Orange County, traditionally a hugely important win in every election.
The difficulty of the I-4 Corridor is the lucrative but expensive and competitive media market. Purchasing airtime for advertising there is expensive, and Ingoglia said good fundraising opportunity is what they’ll have to focus on to win the corridor.
On the Hispanic vote, Ingoglia said the big push would be toward convincing Hispanic voters, especially new citizens who have immigrated from other countries, that the Republican party is the one that offers genuine economic opportunity — unlike the Democrats, who he said only provide the “appearance” of economic opportunity.
The key will be drawing a contrast between the U.S. and the countries recent Floridian immigrants have fled from, such as Cuba, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.
“It’s important to communicate the message of economic opportunity,” Ingoglia said. “That will be our focal point in both English and Spanish. Many immigrants have come to the United States and to Florida for certain reasons. Puerto Rico is now riddled with debt. Cuba, they have no freedom there, due to the oppressive government in Cuba, In Venezuela, they have very similar problems. They’re leaving those countries because the United States represents opportunities they did not have.”
Ingoglia accused the Democrats of trying to push the country in a direction “that more resembles the country [immigrants] fled from,” citing the bailouts of the banks in 2008 as well as the adoption of Obamacare.
Those things both allowed the federal government too much power at the expense of the working class, he said.
Ingoglia was not concerned about Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump‘s controversial stances and statements regarding illegal immigrants. He said many Hispanic voters would be drawn to the appeal of the Republican party’s free-market economic principles.
“If we can explain our position effectively, and explain the reasons why we care about the Hispanic community and our policies are the best, we can convince people,” he said. “We’re not going to win every vote. But we have an opportunity to explain certain positions.”
The biggest feather in their cap according to Ingoglia was how engaged Republican voters are for Donald Trump — much more so than supporters of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton are for her. He characterized the election as one in which voters are simply done with the “establishment.”
“People in both parties want something different in the White House,” he said. “Unfortunately for the Democratic Party, their system was somewhat rigged for Hillary Clinton. A lot of voters wanted Bernie Sanders, but they got stuck with Hillary Clinton instead. The Republicans elected Donald Trump. This election is a referendum — one candidate will continue the status quo, and that is Hillary Clinton. The other embodies shaking things up, and that is Donald Trump.”
