New York – New York Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez is convinced that Puerto Ricans will play a central role in the election results in states considered competitive or swing states; however, if Democrats want to prevail in the race, they have to give the necessary attention to this population group.
In an exclusive interview with El Diario less than two months before the general elections, the first Puerto Rican woman elected to the United States Congress agreed with other political leaders and activists that this population can “change the balance of power” in these elections in view of the closeness of the race and the large presence of Puerto Ricans distributed throughout several states.
Currently, Puerto Ricans are the second largest Hispanic population in the United States with 5.8 million, and the number of Puerto Ricans in this country practically doubles the number of residents on the island.
Puerto Ricans are only preceded by Mexicans with 37.2 million, according to data from the Pew Research Center released in August of last year.
The Florida case
According to the Democrat, who was first elected to Congress in Washington DC in 1992, the campaigns, and in particular that of the Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, must pay particular attention to states like Florida, which although not considered pivotal due to the prevalence of the Republican Party in recent years, are home to the largest number of Puerto Ricans in the United States.
“We cannot give up any ground to the Republicans”
“I have shared with them (Democratic campaign members) from the beginning. I even prepared a memo telling them, one, that there are seven battleground states that are going to decide the elections, but that we cannot give up any ground to the Republicans; and that they should not forget that in Florida we have 1.2 million Puerto Ricans who can swing the result of those elections as happened when Barack Obama was elected president by a 2-point margin. I am convinced that with the necessary investment and attention we could reverse the political position in Florida from a Republican dominance to one that the Democrats can win,” said Velázquez, who represents the 12th Congressional District in the House of Representatives, which includes parts of Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan.
Velázquez, who has positioned himself as one of the most influential figures in Congress in terms of legislation and discussion of issues that concern Puerto Ricans within the territory and in the diaspora, told this newspaper that he will soon be visiting Florida as part of the efforts to mobilize the Latino vote and in particular the Puerto Rican vote in view of the elections of November 5.
“I will be visiting Florida at the request of the campaign, and I will go as many times as they ask me to,” he said.
The Journal also asked the representative about Harris’ performance in the first debate with her Republican rival Donald Trump, whom much of the public declared defeated in the meeting on Tuesday by ABC News.
According to the legislator, the vice president came up with a plan and executed it in a “stellar” manner, not only by putting her opponent’s positions on issues such as abortion in check, but also by exposing him as a convicted criminal.
Harris sought to speak to the average American, but without losing sight of independent voters, which, according to Velázquez, the candidate achieved.
Below is the rest of the first part of El Diario’s interview with Velázquez:
El Diario: “In Pennsylvania, there is talk that candidates like Donald Trump have gained ground in the last elections. To what do you attribute this trend that has occurred in recent years in terms of figures like Trump, and how could Democrats address this?”
Velázquez: “The state of Pennsylvania has historically been a very close state; there is a 50% Republican and 50% Democrat division. That is where we have to fight. We, the Democrats, have won elections in areas that have traditionally been much more conservative. In other words, this is not simply that the Republicans are winning, no. We have won in areas not only urban, but rural, in the state of Pennsylvania. What we have to do is make ourselves known. Go to Pennsylvania and knock on doors. I have told Kamala’s campaign that no one can win the state of Pennsylvania without winning Philadelphia, and that in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas of Philadelphia, there are 500,000 Puerto Ricans. Therefore, we have to pay attention to it, we have to visit them… I have been to Pennsylvania three times already. I went with Jill Biden; I was with Congresswoman Susan Wild twice; with Nanette Barragán who is the director of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. In the last two months, I have been there three times. That shows the importance of Pennsylvania and the Latino vote.”
El Diario: “To what extent is the Puerto Rican vote per se decisive in these elections? How important is it really?
Velázquez: “Look, this is a very close campaign and election, and the polls are showing it. There are battleground states where Harris is winning by 1% or 2%, and where we have a concentration of Puerto Ricans, obviously, we can change the balance of power, as would be the case in Pennsylvania, and in Ohio as well, in Lorain, Cleveland; Milwaukee (Wisconsin), even in Kentucky. In North Carolina, Raleigh; we have a lot of Puerto Ricans. That vote is going to be important because these elections are going to be decided by a narrow margin.”
El Diario: “How important are initiatives like ‘Boricuas con Kamala’ that was recently announced and you participated in that first (fundraising) event? What impact could this type of mobilization have?”
Velázquez: “They are very active in Pennsylvania, and they are very active in Florida. And, obviously, states like those are where there has to be more initiative from Puerto Ricans with Kamala because they are states that can produce, not only presidential support, but also support for congressmen in those states that can be decided by 50,000 or 100,000 votes.”
El Diario: “At this point in history where we find ourselves and with a Puerto Rican diaspora that is increasingly diverse and also more dispersed…how important do you think the handling of Puerto Rican affairs by federal authorities or those in charge of decisions here is for this population? Is it more important now? Do Puerto Ricans in the diaspora pay more attention to this now than before?”
Velázquez: “Note that the Secretary of Energy (Jennifer Granholm) has been to Puerto Rico several times to provide the necessary oversight so that the funds that have been designated by Congress are being used in projects that can make the energy system in Puerto Rico viable. As we all know, LUMA has been a disaster. But, on the other hand, the federal government cannot dictate to Puerto Rico, nor can it dictate to any state in the American nation, how they are going to make decisions about the investment of money or development or how to implement the changes that are necessary to revitalize the energy system in Puerto Rico, and that obviously represents a challenge for the federal government. But, the federal government cannot go to PR every day and tell them how to do things. The federal government does oversee the use of funds so that there is no corruption or misappropriation of funds, but they cannot micromanage the actions taken by the government of Puerto Rico.”
Harris went to the debate with a plan
El Diario: “Let’s talk about the debate. How do you evaluate Harris’ performance? There is a fairly general consensus that the vice president prevailed in the debate and outperformed Trump, but how do you analyze it?”
Velázquez: “Kamala came into that debate with a plan to execute, understanding that there is 28% of the voting population that doesn’t have much information about her, and that was one of her goals, to introduce herself to the American people. So, while she had the opportunity, she talked about her upbringing, a single mother was the one who raised her; that they came from the lower middle class and her mother later opened a business, to establish that she understands the frustration and the anguish of the average American. Another of her goals was to prosecute the former president before the American people, reminding them that this is a man who, while attacking and vilifying migrants in this country, has a criminal record where he was convicted on 34 charges, and it was also proven in the New York Supreme Court that he sexually abused a woman. She reminded the people where we were, how the economy was when Donald Trump left the presidency with high unemployment, with the COVID-19 crisis. So I think she had a stellar role in the fact that she went with a plan and was very focused on each of the objectives she had during the debate.”
El Diario: How can this help Harris advance in the electoral race? How could Harris’ message boost her candidacy?
Velázquez: “She attacked him mercilessly as the one responsible for the Supreme Court invalidating the rights of women to make decisions about their bodies; to have access to medical care in the case of an abortion. And she reminded the women of this country, who represent the majority, on the day they are going to vote. The vast majority of people who are going to vote are women, by far. She not only accused him and reminded the people that he appointed three Republicans, whose objective was to abolish the abortion law. He not only argued that he was directly responsible and described it that way, he said it himself; but he also humanized that decision of the Supreme Court, speaking of women who have wanted to have children and who had to abort them for health reasons that many of these women have bled themselves dry because the states in which they are, it is criminal to give care to a woman who lost a fetus. She humanized (by mentioning) cases of girls who have been raped by stepfathers and relatives who were victims once and would be victims again when they are no longer free to make a decision.”
Stay tuned to the Puerto Rico section of El Diario for the second part of the interview with Representative Nydia Velázquez, in which we will address the issue of Puerto Rico’s status and the legislation on the table in Congress to address this matter.
You can also read other articles in the special series on the potential of the Puerto Rican vote in key states:
Pennsylvania leaders say Puerto Ricans can determine race between Harris and Trump
Kamala Harris has revitalized the Puerto Rican vote in Florida, Puerto Rican leaders say
RNHA Vice President Bets on Puerto Rican Democratic Votes in Florida in Favor of Trump
“La Brega y Fuerza” seeks to mobilize 20,000 Puerto Rican voters in NY to the polls with the “Wake Up” campaign
Puerto Rican Republican Councilman Considers Puerto Rican Vote in Pennsylvania Crucial