By NAN Staff Writer
News Americas, MIAMI, FL, Fri. Oct. 23, 2020: As the countdown begins to the Nov. 3, 2020 US general elections, a survey of dozens of Caribbean American voters has found that most will be supporting the Democratic ticket over the Republican incumbent – but the support has dropped from when Hillary Clinton ran for President in 2016.
Caribbean-American magazine, EVERYBODY’S, said it polled 550 of its subscribers – primarily Caribbean immigrants mainly from the Anglophone Caribbean and their offspring born or raised in the U.S. in 41 states – and found that 94 percent plan to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Many of those Caribbean-American voters reside in the swing states of Florida and Pennsylvania as well as in Ohio, Michigan and Georgia, the magazine’s publisher, Herman Hall said.
Still the magazine said the 94 percent support is less than approximately 97 percent who supported Senator Hilary Clinton in 2016.
Of those that will vote for Team Biden/Harris, 100 percent said it is because of their planned policies for the economy, immigration, covid-19 and civil rights.
“Caribbean-American voters can be the tipping point,” Hall said, adding to the claim made by both Biden and Caribbean roots Senator Harris, that Caribbean voters in Florida can hand the Democrats the win this November.
The magazine’s poll also found that 6 percent of Caribbean voters say they will vote for the Donald Trump/Mike Pence ticket, more than they did in 2016 – when only 2.5% said they would vote for Trump because of his policies on the economy, immigration, COVID-19 and civil rights.
One of the most troubling findings from the poll, according to the magazine, is that 61 percent of Caribbean voters believe that regardless of which party wins the 2020 presidential election, there will be racial violence and civil unrest during the next 4 years in the
US. However, 39 percent do not feel this will occur.
EVERYBODY’S Magazine said the poll was conducted by mailed questionnaire during the week of the Republican National Convention, August 24-27, 2020 and answers received by September 20, 2020 were the only ones counted. The magazine says its subscribers are located all across the US – from Louisiana in the deep south to Massachusetts in the north, New Jersey in the east to California and Oregon in the west and in states in mid America such as Arizona, Michigan, Ohio and Missouri.
PAST POLLS
The magazine has been conducting presidential election polls of Caribbean American voters since 1980.
In the presidential election of 1994, the Democrats candidate, Senator John Kerry, got 91 percent of the Caribbean-American support from those polled and Republican George W. Bush garnered a mere 8.8 percent.
In the historic election held on November 4, 2008, which gave the nation its first mixed race president, 91.9 percent Caribbean-Americans voters said they supported Senator Barack Obama while 6.1 percent supported Senator John McCain and 2 percent went for third party candidates.
But in 2012 almost 98 percent of Caribbean-Americans supported the reelection of President Obama.
The only Republican candidate to get approximately 16 percent of the Caribbean-American support in the past decades, according to the publication, was Ronald Reagan for his second term. For his first term, few Caribbean-Americans polled supporting him but by his second term 16 percent of Caribbean-Americans said they voted for Reagan’s re-election based on his Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), his invasion/rescue mission of Grenada in 1983 and his visit to Jamaica and Barbados in 1982.
ABOUT THE MAGAZINE
EVERYBODY’S “Caribbean” Magazine is the longest surviving Caribbean-American publication with subscribers across the U.S., publishing its first issue on January 2, 1977. The magazine publishes 6 printed editions per year. There are 3 editions only in digital format per year for a total of 9 editions in digital format. It is published by HH Digital, LLC.
CARIBBEAN AMERICAN VOTERS
Immigrants have been an important driver in the growth of the country’s Black eligible voter population. Between 2000 and 2018, the number of immigrants in the Black electorate almost tripled from 800,000 to 2.3 million, and their shares doubled from 4% in 2000 to 8% in 2018, according to Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.
The top two regions of origin for this electorate are the Caribbean and Africa, with these regions accounting for 50% and 41% of Black immigrant eligible voters, respectively. This reflects trends among the overall Black American foreign-born population.
The top regions of origin can differ greatly between battleground states. In Florida, the vast majority (92%) of its Black immigrant voting public hails from Caribbean nations such as Haiti and Jamaica. Florida has more than 974,000 people of West Indian ancestry. That total includes more than 300,000 Jamaicans and more than 530,000 Haitians, according to census figures. A conservative estimate for the number of Jamaican voters in Florida stands at 91,000, because many may not report Jamaica as their country of origin. Haitian voters are estimated at about 115,000.
