‘I don’t know what a Latinx is’: Francis Suarez bashes Dems’ ‘inappropriate’ messaging to Latino voters

Francis Suarez. Image via AP.

Democrats have continued to miss the mark with Hispanic and Latino voters, America’s fastest-growing voting bloc, according to Republican Miami Mayor and presidential hopeful Francis Suarez.

If GOP candidates are smart, he said, they’ll exploit it.

“Democrats have been messaging Hispanics or Latinos completely inappropriately. First, they start with ‘Latinx,’ which is sort of a monolithic brand that nobody feels connected to. I don’t know what a ‘Latinx’ is,” he said during a Monday episode of the Line Drive Podcast.

“Then you have (First Lady) Jill Biden, who goes to a rally and says in her speech — and you know somebody wrote this for her — she says that Hispanics are as unique as the bodegas of New York, the blossoms of Miami and the tacos of San Antonio.”

Suarez, a two-term Cuban-American Mayor who last month became the third Florida man to enter the Republican fray for President, said Republicans’ conservative values have the potential to win over Hispanic and Latino voters for the foreseeable future — especially if they manage to deftly tackle the issue of illegal immigration.

“Republicans have been given a gift,” he said. “If we can go with a pro-family, pro-law-and-order (platform), but then also come up with some solutions (to) deal with this issue long-term and respect the nuances of different Hispanic cultures like the Democrats have disrespected them, then I think you have a great opportunity to expand.”

The past two Presidential Elections suggest Suarez is right about shifting support among Hispanics who, as the word suggests, are people with ancestry from countries whose primary language is Spanish.

Latino refers to a person with origins from Latin America — Mexico, South and Central America — and the Caribbean. Latinx is a gender-neutral version of the word, though some members of the Latino community “feel this term has been imposed on them by an English-speaking, mostly academic audience,” according to Duke University.

In the 2020 election, President Joe Biden won Hispanic voters by 21 percentage points, 59% to 38%, over former President Donald Trump — a significant drop from the 38-point advantage Hillary Clinton held over Trump, 66% to 28%, during their clash four years before.

A Pew Research Center analysis of the 2020 election found there was a slight gap among Hispanic voters by gender — Biden won men by 17 points and women by 25 points — but Trump made a 10-point gain among Hispanics, driven in large part by greater support among those without a college degree.

As of Monday, Biden led Trump in national polling by up to 5 points, according to FiveThirtyEight. One poll showed the two are now in a dead heat with 31% support each.

The site on Friday showed Trump comfortably leading the GOP field with 51% support compared to 19.5% for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, 7% for entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, 7% for former Vice President Mike Pence, 4% for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, 3% for U.S. Sen. Tim Scott and less than 1% for North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Suarez, who bottomed out the list at 0%.

Suarez, 45, is billing himself as a younger, more in-touch candidate who helped Miami bounce back from the pandemic faster than many other major cities. DeSantis is 44 and, until Sarah Huckabee Sanders won in Arkansas, held the distinction of being America’s youngest serving Governor. Ramaswamy is 37.

“I believe that our policies in Miami have set us on a course to be one of the most prosperous cities in the country, if not the world, (and) that same set of principles that (has) created that prosperity can be scaled nationally to create generational prosperity,” he said.

“I’m unique in terms of what I offer. I wouldn’t run if I felt that someone else embodied that same sort of principles that I do and the same candidate profile that I have. Obviously, I’m young. Obviously, I’m Hispanic. Obviously, I’m an urban Mayor.”