MIAMI —Sen. Marco Rubio’s declaration for president here Monday could galvanize a sizable local community of Colombian-Americans.
The Florida Republican, who would be the first Hispanic to lead a major political party’s presidential ticket if he wins his party’s nomination, is Cuban by descent. But the senator’s U.S.-born wife, Jeanette, is Colombian-American.
She would become first lady if her husband wins the presidency, and that possibility hasn’t gone unnoticed by Sunshine State Republicans who are immigrants or children of immigrants from the South American nation of Colombia.
“It’s very important for us,” said Fabio Andrade, 58, a Republican businessman and community activist who emigrated from Colombia in 1967. “Colombians will mobilize based on that.”
Andrade said he would support Rubio over Jeb Bush if the former two-term Florida governor runs for president in 2016, as he is expected to do. Bush’s wife, Columba, was born in Mexico, where the two met.
The Hispanic vote in Florida was historically influenced by a South Florida Cuban-American community that traditionally leans Republican. But the Hispanic population in the Sunshine State gets more diverse every year, loosening the GOP’s grip on this key demographic.
Colombian-Americans typically lean slightly Democratic, with independents comprising the second-largest bloc of Colombian-American voters, followed lastly by those who vote Republican. There is a Colombian-American chamber of commerce and similar organizations in South Florida, and Andrade said members of the community live scattered throughout greater Miami, with concentrations in Kendall, Doral, Key Biscayne, Aventura and Weston, and Miami proper.
According to government figures, 23.6 percent of the nearly 20 million Floridians identify as Hispanic or Latino.
Depending on region, the largest population of ethnic Hispanics might be Mexicans, Puerto Ricans or Cubans. According to one demographic report, 65 percent of residents in Miami-Dade County are Hispanic, including 34 percent of Cubans, 5 percent of Colombians, and 4 percent of Nicaraguans. Eleven percent of county residents are identified as South American.
