The past month already sealed the coffin on Bernie Sanders’ second presidential bid, but his catastrophic loss among his supposedly revolutionary coalition in Florida provided it the devastating ending it deserved.
From his short-lived successful streak in Iowa and New Hampshire to the disastrous Super Tuesday, the young voters Sanders claimed would save his campaign with record turnout never actually materialized. The Vermont senator did manage to increase his support margins with Latino voters from 2016, but as Florida proved, his best efforts simply were not enough.
The writing was on the walls for weeks before Tuesday’s primary, with polling giving presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden a vast margin among Latino voters in the Sunshine State. Sanders did best with HIspanics in most other states — though not nearly as dominant as Biden has been among black voters. But when brought before one of the most diverse Latino communities in the country, Sanders failed. And badly — the results tallied in the early evening point to a rout.
It makes perfect sense. Latinos are not a monolith. There are dozens of Hispanic nationalities represented within the U.S., and each has its own political culture. Immigration from Mexico has decreased, immigration from Central America has increased, and this makeup is more accurately reflected in Florida than it is in California. Whereas Sanders won the favor of Mexican-American Democrats in California, Florida polling clearly foreshadowed Biden’s strength — not just with anti-socialist Cuban-American Democrats, but also with Puerto Ricans and Venezuelans.
Socialists may point to demographic change with regard to young voters, but Florida has proven that demographics never point to a simple destiny.
