The Puerto Rican Wave That Could Boost Hillary Clinton in Florida
http://time.com/4493464/hillary-clinton-florida-latino-hispanic-donald-trump/
In Floridas I-4 corridor where presidential elections can be won or lost, Puerto Ricans like Camacho have been arriving by the tens of thousands every year, fleeing economic crisis at home. Spanish-speaking kids are filling up the local Little League rosters and island-style beans and fruit juices are stocking up the aisles in local supermarkets. Many arrive without a plan, sleeping in friends and families homes, hotels, or even park benches. Camachos family came over several years ago, and now hes joined them for good.
As American citizens, Puerto Ricans can register to vote as soon as they arrive on the mainland. That fact is helping to boost Latino voter registration in the Sunshine State. Turnout in November among Floridas Hispanics is expected to grow by 20% compared with 2012, according to data from National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. Hispanics are causing Florida to each passing presidential cycle look more and more like blue state, said Fernand Armand, a Democratic pollster in the state.
What is happening in Florida is happening nationwide, albeit at a slower speed. Swing states across the country will see record numbers of Hispanic voters this election. In 2012, 16.8% of the eligible voting population in Nevada was Hispanic, and today its 19%, according to data by the Brookings Institution, the American Enterprise Institute and the Center for American Progress. In Arizona it was 22.6%, now its 24.4%. Nationwide, white voters will make up 68.8% of eligible voters this year, compared with 70.7% just four years ago 2012, due in large part to higher minority birthrates. Its a steady, irreversible trend that does not bode well for Republicans, whose volatile standard bearer has been turning off the United States fastest growing demographic.