Hispanic voters are increasingly powerful in U.S. elections, and Puerto Rican voters are one of the fastest-growing and most influential groups. This is particularly true in Central Florida, where waves of new residents from Puerto Rico as well as people moving in from the Northeast are creating an influential enclave of Puerto Rican voters on the mainland.
Since Puerto Rico has no voting representation in the House and no representation in the Senate, Florida’s Puerto Ricans constitute one of the few examples of voting power for Puerto Ricans. Their influence on Federal policies and issues, as well as on local races, should not be underestimated.
A new in-depth survey of this demographic has been conducted. 400 residents of Florida’s I-4 corridor were interviewed by phone in their preferred language by Voter/Consumer Research.
One of the questions was this:
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: “If Puerto Rico were to become a state and added the 51st star to the US flag it would fill me with pride”?
The answers made it extremely clear that the great majority of those surveyed are ready for Puerto Rico to become a state. 81% of the respondents agreed; 60% agreed strongly that seeing Puerto Rico’s star on the U.S. flag at last would be a source of pride.
Here are the detailed answers to that question:
- Strongly agree: 60%
- Somewhat agree: 21%
- Somewhat disagree: 6%
- Strongly disagree: 9 %
- Don’t know: 4%
- Refused to answer: 0
Here are more striking takeaways from the survey:
- Puerto Rican voters in Central Florida favor statehood for Puerto Rico.
- Puerto Rican voters in the U.S. care about status resolution for Puerto Rico, and will vote for candidates who support it.
- 92% of Central Florida’s Puerto Ricans are voters – but they are not predictable voters. Though many are registered Democrats, they are conservative.
- Puerto Ricans in Central Florida keep in touch with Puerto Rico.
See the results of the survey.
Voter Consumer Research surveying FL I-4 Hispanics of Puerto Rican Origin, Dates: 8/20-9/4/2014
400 Interviews / MoE +/- 4.9%
This post was originally written in English and may be being auto-translated by Google.
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[…] have a party affiliation. And as we’ve seen in polling before, the Puerto Rican voters of the all-important I-4 corridor aren’t predictable in terms of party affiliation. They’re often conservative, for […]