By voting for Joe Biden in 2020, Kenny Ramirez expected “a change”. But he “didn’t see” it. On the other hand, he saw the prices of products needed for his hair salon in Pennsylvania increase, and he voted for Donald Trump.
Kenny Ramirez, a 35-year-old American of Dominican origin, lives in Reading, a city of nearly 70% Hispanic located in a key state which, like this hairdresser, voted for the former Republican president.
In Berks County, where Reading is located, Trump even improved his score by almost 6,000 votes compared to 2020, while Democrat Kamala Harris was 3,000 votes less than Biden.
For Mr. Ramirez, the Biden-Harris administration has not paid enough attention to small businesses like his and has been too complacent towards the flow of migrants entering the country illegally through its border with Mexico. If the majority of Latin American voters leaned for Kamala Harris at the national level, this election was marked by a gain in popularity for the Republican Party among men in this minority.
In the barbershop in Reading, Bryant Morales points out that he was a Democrat until Donald Trump burst onto the national political scene. “He showed me that I was a Republican,” says this 35-year-old man, who voted for the billionaire. “When you see the Democrats in power, they haven’t done much.” This car salesman, also Dominican-American, believes that Donald Trump’s past as a businessman makes him qualified to influence the economy.
“He can improve the economy for businesses, because he will treat America like a business,” he says.
“Gold medalist”
In Reading, Joseph Nunez, 39, is the first Hispanic to lead the local branch of the Republican Party. For six years, he has traveled thousands of kilometers behind the wheel of his traveling office, a van nicknamed “Hercules,” to convince the Hispanic population and others to join his camp.
“There, I feel like an Olympic gold medalist,” he said. “Like someone who really gave it their all, and is ultimately rewarded with a victory.”
Berks County Democratic Party leader Kevin Boughter is at a loss to explain what has driven a growing number of Hispanic men to rally around the New York billionaire, given his many derogatory comments about Hispanic communities. and immigrants. “It amazes me,” says Kevin Boughter in his office, on which election results sheets are lying around.
As Election Day approached, the Democratic official said he worried that Kamala Harris’ campaign team wasn’t paying enough attention to his corner of Pennsylvania. The vice-president ended up coming, on the very last day of the campaign. She made an appearance at a Puerto Rican restaurant and rang a few doors, among other trips around the state that same day.
As Donald Trump puts together his government team before he takes office on January 20, Bryant Morales says he hopes the dollar will appreciate in order to make foreign travel more affordable. “We bet on Trump,” he emphasizes, “now we have to let him work, and we’ll see what happens.”
(afp)
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