Former Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum said Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders ruined his chances to win Florida in future elections by defending Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
During an interview with CNN contributor David Axelrod, the liberal former Tallahassee mayor said Sanders’s defense of Castro’s “literacy program” deeply dismayed minority communities in Florida. “My guess is it will likely be a [Joe] Biden runaway. They already had great relations in the state, but those comments will live for a lot of people,” said Gillum, who was endorsed by Sanders during his bid for Florida governor.
“One Colombian American state senator Democrat put it this way: She said, ‘Listening to Sanders talk about, romanticize, or give credit to the Castro regime because of a ‘literacy reading program’ is like listening to Donald Trump after Charlottesville say that there were ‘good people on both sides,'” he said.
In new #AxeFiles, fmr FL Gov nominee @AndrewGillum says @BernieSanders praise of Castro will spur @JoeBiden rout in 3/17 primary. Quoting FL Hispanic leader: “It was like listening to Trump after Charlottesville say there were good people on both sides.”https://t.co/oZMsoGhyTk pic.twitter.com/NbEOIzchCQ
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) March 5, 2020
A new poll shows Biden easily beating Sanders in the upcoming Democratic primary in Florida. The former vice president received approximately 61% support, according to a St. Pete Polls survey released on Thursday, nearly 49 percentage points ahead of Sanders.
The survey, conducted March 4, polled 1,882 registered Democratic voters. Nearly 29% of respondents were black, and 16% were Hispanic. The former vice president led in every racial category, with nearly 83% support among black voters, 64% support from Hispanic voters, and 88% support from white voters.
Sanders, a socialist, was beaten by the 13.5% support for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who dropped out of the race after his poor performance on Super Tuesday and endorsed Biden. Sanders ended up in third place with approximately 12% support, falling 2 points shy of the RealClearPolitics state average.
From 2010-2017, the Cuban population in Miami-Dade County, Florida, grew 21%, becoming the home of approximately 700,000 Cuban Americans. Cubans represent over a quarter of the population in the county, which is a key Democratic stronghold for the state’s primary and general election. “Cuban-born residents comprised 48.5% of Miami-Dade’s foreign-born population, up from 46% in 2010,” according to the Miami Herald.
Many fled the Cuban communist regime in search for a more prosperous life, a fact Gillum seized on in the interview.
On the death of Fidel Castro in 2016, Cuban Floridians celebrated on the streets by dancing, singing, and waving their native country’s flag.
“People are optimistic that this will usher in a new opportunity for freedom and democracy,” said former GOP Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban refugee, of Castro’s death at the time. “He’s a man who executed a lot of family members of my constituency, imprisoned so many of them … as long as there’s a Castro in power, there’s not much hope for change.”
