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Abstract
This quantitative and historically-grounded thesis is constructed to explore the factors that have contributed to the fundamentally Republican-friendly lean of the Cuban American electorate in Miami-Dade County, utilizing the City of Hialeah as a statistically consistent and sociologically representative case study for the whole. Using a three-pronged, mixed-methods approach, I have identified two electoral cycles – 1980 and 2000 – that provide insight into the extent that Cuban American policy prioritizations have been shaped by two temporally parallel dialogues established long before the Trump-era elections. The first of these is the front-facing conflict between Fidel’s communist regime and the United States, while the second is the destabilizing relationship between the diaspora and the rotating assortment of non-Cuban, Washington-based policymakers that formulate the oftentimes contradictory American response to the Cuban regime. Through this work, I have acquired three conclusions which are problem statements in themselves, unlocking new questions regarding assimilation and identity in both the sociological and political contexts. This thesis closes with applications of such conclusions to the recent Trump elections, providing political strategies on how Democrats could prevent longer-term electoral repercussions amongst the Cuban and Latino vote.
In light of the 2024 Presidential Election, there has been a newfound interest in the electoral politics of urban areas nationwide, particularly amongst the cleavages that distribute Latino communities across the American political spectrum. It is my hope that by highlighting the long-standing conservative, yet urban Latino community that raised me, additional research and scholarship can be conducted concerning our counterparts in other American cities, eventually translating into a widespread understanding of the fastest growing electoral demographic in the United States.