hellowin At Miami forum, Democrats and Republicans clash over top issues for Latinos in election
Republican and Democratic analysts clashed over access to abortion and reproductive rights at a public-service forum in Doral on Wednesday that focused on issues crucial to Hispanic voters as the presidential elections approach in November.hellowin
“I am very close to my faith. What all Americans want is for the government not to meddle in personal decisions about women’s bodies,” said media entrepreneur Liz Rebecca Alarcón, one of the Democratic panelists.
Marili Cancio, a Republican real estate lawyer who said she is a pro-life Catholic, said that it will be up to each state and its voters to decide what to do about abortion rights. A survey that TelevisaUnivision conducted in mid-September found that 63% of Hispanics in Florida would vote definitely or probably yes on a proposed amendment to enshrine abortion rights in Florida’s constitution, a reflection of support for abortion rights from the majority of Hispanics nationwide.
The conversation turned heated when Democratic communications strategist José Aristimuño raised concerns over pregnant women being denied life-saving healthcare in states where abortion is banned or strictly limited.
“All doctors have the obligation to provide medical care to a woman to save her life,” said Cancio.
Alarcón referred to the death of 28-year-old Amber Nicole Thurman, who died in Georgia in 2022 after she did not receive routine treatment for a rare complication after an abortion.
“That’s what’s happening under Trump’s anti-abortion laws,” Alarcón said. During this presidential campaign, Republican candidate Donald Trump has said he would not support a national abortion ban. But the judicial appointments he made to the Supreme Court during his administration tipped the body in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade in the summer of 2022, giving states the authority to regulate abortion. Several Republican-led states have largely restricted or banned abortions since.
The public service forum, hosted at Univision and organized in collaboration with the Miami Herald, el Nuevo Herald and WLRN, was aimed at informing Hispanic voters as they make decisions on which candidates to support amid their growing political influence in the U.S. Hispanics make up nearly 20 percent of the country’s population. In Florida, home to many communities with roots in Latin America and Caribbean, that number is closer to 30 percent.
Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald journalist Syra Ortiz Blanes, CBS4 Anchor Eliott Rodriguez and WLRN Vice President of News Sergio Bustos asked the panelists questions as guest journalists on the special program. Univision news anchor Jenny Padura and Univision 23 reporter Maria Alesia Sosa moderated.
Padura kicked off the broadcast by asking the panelists whether the immigration politics of Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Trump were more amenable to Hispanic voters — given that recent polling shows that over half of Hispanic voters in Florida support Biden-era avenues to legal immigration that Trump says he would end.
“Republicans need a problem to run a campaign because they know that fixing it doesn’t benefit them…. They need a problem, and the problem is immigrants,” said Aristimuño.
He referred to false claims Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, have spread that Haitian immigrants are eating people’s pets: “Until when are we going to use immigrants as chess pieces?”
Colombian-born Republican and LIBRE Initiative Director Cesar Grajales shot back that Biden had been in power for four years and has not secured a bipartisan immigration bill.
“If they had so much interest in solving the immigration problem, why didn’t they do it at the beginning of the year?” he said. Both sides found common ground in that criminals should be deported.
Rodriguez, the longtime anchor for CBS4, asked the panelists about how the candidates could immediately relieve the nationwide lack of affordable housing.
Aristimuño said that Harris’ proposal to give subsidy to first-time homeowners would help, while both Grajales and Cancio said that such financial assistance was not the answer and would lead to more inflation. The focus, they argued, should be on deregulating home construction and helping people secure good jobs and low interest rates so they can afford their mortgages.
The panelists also discussed the economy and foreign policy, including the federal governments’ relationship to Cuba and Venezuela. The forum followed up a previous English-language town hall, hosted by Miami media outlets in March, focused on Hispanic voters.
You can the watch the special broadcast on Al Punto Florida on Sunday, October 6 at 12 pm, or on Youtube below here:
This story was originally published October 3, 2024, 12:59 PM.
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