President Donald Trump and Vice President Joe Biden marked the start of Hispanic Heritage Month with campaign events in Osceola County today.
Osceola County where Biden will visit Tuesday evening has the largest unemployment rate in Florida and it was a coronavirus hotspot at the beginning of the pandemic.
Democratic State Rep. Amy Mercado said that’s why Latino voters want to hear how Biden will support small businesses, but also how he’ll ensure access to healthcare.
“Here you have a president whose trying to remove Obamacare altogether but it’s the safety net for so many of us. Especially within our area and our community where we have service jobs with very little or no healthcare coverage.”
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Mercado says Latino voters also support Biden's climate change policies.
“And [Trump] had a significant amount of time where he’s failed to provide adequate support in the wake of just even Hurricane Maria not even talking about all the other climate issues that have occurred post-Maria and all the hurricanes, the earthquakes, etc.”
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Trump's campaign visited Kissimmee earlier in the day.
Executive Director of the Republican Party of Florida Helen Aguirre Ferré says Latino voters will vote for Trump for national security reasons but also economic ones.
"So we know that given the opportunity to reopen the economy, let businesses come back again and rehire and entrepreneurs be able to function in an environment with fewer cumbersome government regulations where you see interest rates really low, where manufacturing really has a chance to come back and flourish in the United States. We're going to see that robust economy that we had before."
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Aguirre Ferré said before the pandemic Latinos and African Americans had historically low unemployment rates and Trump will bring back jobs again.
"We Republicans have been here since 2016. We're not coming here to Osceola County or Orange County just because of the 2020 election. We've been here. Hispanics are an important part of our community, an important component of our grassroots efforts."
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Today marks the start of Hispanic Heritage Month in an important swing state.
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