Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Florida Democrats are aggressively challenging Venezuela\u2019s tainted election, as they try to regain support from Hispanic voters after getting labeled by Republicans as “socialists” and “communists” over several election cycles.<\/p>\n
While Republicans warn that the U.S. could become like Venezuela<\/a> if voters were to elect a \u201cCalifornia socialist\u201d as president, Democrats are increasingly likening former President Donald Trump to autocratic Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n The two men shared \u201cdisturbing parallels,\u201d said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz<\/a> (D-Fla.). \u201cBoth men,\u201d she said, \u201chave tried to overturn the will of their people and resorted to political violence to obtain their unsavory goal.\u201d Democratic Senate candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell said it was important to denounce both the \u201crise of right-wing authoritarianism\u201d and \u201csocialist left-wing dictatorships\u201d because \u201cit is coming right here to the United States if we don\u2019t stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not clear whether the messaging will work. Over 210,000 people of Venezuelan descent live in Florida and share similar diaspora experiences of Cuban Americans, many of whom carry generational trauma from living and fleeing left-wing authoritarianism. In recent cycles, both communities have shifted to become more Republican.<\/p>\n Democrats already face a challenging balancing act when their own forceful rhetoric clashes with the Biden administration\u2019s more cautious posture. Democratic officials previously pressed the White House to reimpose oil sanctions on Venezuela sooner<\/a>, after the administration lifted them in 2023 in exchange for holding freer elections, which Maduro reneged on. <\/p>\n Many were also outraged<\/a> when the Biden administration let Cuban officials tour Miami International Airport, though it apparently wasn\u2019t unusual. The president also lifted some of Trump\u2019s sanctions on Cuba, though he didn\u2019t go as far as former President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n After Venezuela\u2019s election, Florida Democrats quickly recognized opposition candidate Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez as the rightful winner, and Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava urged the State Department<\/a> to implement the strongest sanctions possible. Maduro hasn\u2019t produced the voting results the U.S. demanded and Venezuela\u2019s attorney general \u2014 an ally of Maduro \u2014 is investigating opposition leaders Mar\u00eda Corina Machado and Gonz\u00e1lez for alleged “incitement to insurrection.\u201d<\/p>\n Florida Democrats acknowledge that diplomacy takes time and credit the Biden administration for the Venezuelan election happening at all, and warn that mishandling the situation could lead to more mass migration and put the lives of protesters in Venezuela in danger. The Biden administration is withholding recognizing Gonz\u00e1lez<\/a> as president-elect for now \u2014 despite acknowledging he won<\/a> \u2014 and the Miami Herald suggested<\/a> it may be because of ongoing diplomatic efforts with other countries.<\/p>\n Republicans see it differently. They\u2019re calling out Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden for what they see as caving to dictatorships and winding up in the exact situation they warned about. GOP Rep. Mario D\u00edaz-Balart accused the Biden White House of \u201cconstantly minimizing the damage that dictatorships in this hemisphere do\u201d and of \u201clooking at ways of helping them and appeasing them and throwing them lifesavers.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump on Monday said in an interview with a livestreamer that Venezuela was being run by a dictator. But he waited days before initially weighing in on the election<\/a>, when he blamed Harris for the oil sanctions deal. <\/p>\n As president, Trump didn\u2019t fully give in to many pressures from fellow Republicans, including their urging to take stronger actions to support the opposition movement. Still, he was overall seen by many in the exile community as taking a tough stance that energized Hispanic voters in Florida.<\/p>\n Evelyn P\u00e9rez-Verd\u00eda \u2014 the founder of We Are M\u00e1s, and an expert on working with Hispanic communities \u2014 said the White House had done its job on Venezuela policy. But she urged Harris as a presidential candidate to denounce the dictatorship the way she\u2019s seen Republicans, such as Rep. Mar\u00eda Elvira Salazar of Miami, do and \u201creject authoritarians from the left or right.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey think she is \u2018wishy-washy\u2019 about the issue because they believe she is genuinely more left-wing than Bernie Sanders,\u201d P\u00e9rez-Verd\u00eda said of how Hispanic voters in Florida view Harris, due to content shared in private WhatsApp channels painting her that way. \u201cShe needs to rip that perception off like a Band-Aid.\u201d<\/p>\n Mia McCarthy contributed to this report. This story first appeared in Florida Playbook.\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to get it in your inbox.<\/p>\n