Miami-Dade Voted for Trump. How Do Voters Feel About Him Now? | WSJ

- Miami-Dade is the most populous county in the once-crucial swing state of Florida. It's roughly 70% Hispanic, and in recent elections, it has shifted sharply to the right. Hillary Clinton won the county by nearly 30 points in 2016, but in the last election, Donald Trump won by more than 11 points. I'm Sabrina Rodriguez, and I've spent much of the past decade reporting on Latinos across the country. All of that started at home in Miami. In this episode of "Rooted In," I'm coming back to Miami-Dade to speak with my Cuban community about what issues are most important to them, one cafecito at a time. - You know, how do we find a balanced candidate? And I think both sides have lost that. - Voters consistently told me that their top issues are the economy and immigration. Miami now has the highest cost of living of the US's most populous metropolitan areas, and ICE's Miami Field Office leads the country in immigration arrests, more than double any other area. - Democrats are leaning on these issues as they try to win back Hispanic voters here and make Florida competitive again. I've come home to see whether the Hispanic voters who helped propel Trump's return to the White House are still standing with him and the Republican Party ahead of the midterms. I feel like this is like "MTV Cribs." I'm like, "Welcome to my crib." A lot has changed since I lived here, but I will admit, some things have not. Good morning, Meadowlane Tigers. Today is September 19th, 2005. Did you know that yesterday was the 57th annual Emmy Award? We have framed my first article to ever come out in print. It really speaks to how much I always knew I wanted to do journalism and how proud I am of Miami in particular. Hey! - Hi. - How are you? To better understand how people are feeling here ahead of the midterms, I sat down with my childhood best friend, Ellie, and my mom. My mom voted for Kamala Harris in 2024. Ellie voted for Clinton in 2016 and went on to vote for Trump twice. They're not happy with Trump's performance. A big driver of their discontent is his immigration policies. Cafecito time. - Ooh. - I mean, when I first started covering politics, I remember Hillary Clinton won in Miami-Dade County. Fast-forward 2024, Trump wins. Have you seen that evolution happen and kinda why do you think Miami-Dade has moved further to the right? - I did not like Trump at all. I mean, I still don't like Trump, but I historically was always very center-left. And then with time, especially post-COVID, right, slowly kind of started moving over to the right side. So, me, myself, I've seen the transition. And I think overall, that's what happened with the Cuban population. This guy came and he just really knew the right things to say to get this group of people going. My focus is more conservative fiscal policies, right, where I'm not really concerned about the social stuff. - Trump made a lot of promises on things that he knew that they would attract their attention. I have never expected that he's gonna do anything for Cuba. I find it hard to grasp that being Latino, you would be pro-Trump. A lot of them are pro that he gets rid of, of the undocumented immigrants, and they forget that they also, at one point, were in this country just looking for a better life. - How do you feel about President Trump today? Do you have any kind of regret for voting for him? - So, the interesting point is like, no, I don't feel regret for voting for him because I do think the other side of the coin is worse, that I truly do not align with a lot of what that the left is prioritizing. They're focusing on things that affect a smaller group of people versus a wider group of people. - You know, I remember in 2024 for the election, our street was full of Trump flags. - What's interesting is you don't see them with the flags now. They're not gonna be as vocal because they're not happy with certain things. How many Cubans have been deported? - I believe in, like, control for immigration, but definitely what is being done in such a public manner and so just very ugly. One of my best friends from high school, her dad was also just suddenly picked up off the street and deported to Mexico, and they're Cuban. And that hit home 'cause now it happened to someone very close to me- - There you go. - That I know. Why are we ripping families apart truly, you know? Like, that's not okay. - Yeah, no, definitely. - That's the nastiness that Trump brings to politics. - The number of Cubans arrested by ICE each month has more than tripled during Trump's second term. Republicans have long painted Democrats as socialists. That has resonated here with some Hispanics, including Cubans whose families fled communist or authoritarian regimes. More than one third of Cubans in the US live in Miami-Dade. I made my way to Little Havana's legendary Domino Park to speak with Cubans about how they're feeling about politics. This park is truly as Cuban as it gets. - Trump promised to launch the largest mass deportation operation in US history. Some voters thought he would only focus on criminals. That hasn't played out on the ground here. In July, over 7,500 people were arrested by the Miami Field Office. More than half had no criminal charges. Diosdado Marin owns a Cuban restaurant here, where he regularly hosts Republican candidates and elected officials. I sat down with him to see how he's feeling two years into Trump's presidency. - One congressional candidate campaigning vocally against the immigration crackdown is former broadcast journalist Elliot Rodriguez. - Hey, how you doing? Elliot Rodriguez. - He's running against incumbent Republican Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar. - Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far. - One of the few Republicans who has publicly criticized the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. - Cafecito? - Yeah, he knows what he's doing. - For you. - Thank you. - Oh, yes. - Oh. What are you hearing from folks about the state of the economy, especially in the small business community in Miami? - People are suffering. People don't know how they're gonna make their payments, how they're gonna pay the rent. And in the immigrant community, it's a lot worse. People are afraid of going out of their homes right now because of this immigration policy that is cruel and inhumane. And I think people like me who have a voice, now is not the time to sit on the sidelines. We have seen immigrants picked up in emergency rooms after a car accident. We've seen ICE agents pick up American citizens, so people in this community are living in fear, and those who voted for Donald Trump and voted for this are saying the same thing. This is not what we expected. - The conversation around socialism, communism, we hear Republicans really lean in on those attacks. How are you navigating that in a state where Republicans say any Democrat is a socialist, any Democrat is a communist? - If I'm asking them what's going on with the cost of living, housing affordability, and all they wanna talk about is a socialist or communist hiding behind every corner, it tells me that they're not focused on the needs of the community. - One of Trump's strongest enclaves of support in Miami-Dade is Hialeah, the majority-Cuban city where I grew up. Trump has long promised to help free Cuba from communist rule, which has appealed to many here. Before the start of his second term, one of the main avenues in the city was renamed after him. And last year, Hialeah elected one of the youngest mayors in the country, Republican Bryan Calvo. Hialeah is a place that you see a lot of candidates flock to. Why is that? - We are a blue-collar town, relatively low-income, but very politically motivated because it's a big immigrant town. You have obviously most of our residents that are Cuban, they escaped communism in Cuba, and so the last thing that they wanna aspire to is anything that's related to communism or the left. - I'm curious what you're hearing from constituents looking to this year's midterms. - I think independents I've seen probably have largely shifted away from the president, and from what I hear, a lot of it has to do with immigration. You hear some of the stories. These are personal stories that are hitting, you know, communities like us. - How do you feel about what the president has done so far on Cuba? - I mean, I can't say that I've seen they've done much. - I'm curious, are you frustrated that he hasn't accomplished more on Cuba? - I mean, look, the president has a million and one problems to deal with, right? And Cuba, although it's important to us as a community, maybe not as a priority to the White House who has a million other problems. - Could this in the long run hurt Republicans? - Well, what's the alternative? I mean, I don't think you're gonna have any of these voters go ahead and vote for a Democrat, right? So either that or, you know, they're just not gonna vote. - Through all of my conversations and cafecitos back home, one thing is clear. There's deep frustration among voters. If Democrats can win over some of the Hispanic voters who backed Trump or if some of those voters stay home this November, it could spell trouble for Republicans in the midterms. Do you think you're gonna vote in the midterms this year? - I'm gonna vote. - Yeah, no, agree. Definitely plan to vote.