Florida Governor Elections To Test Shifting Attitudes On Cuba Embargo

A new poll from the nonpartisan Atlantic Council has found that a majority of Americans favor normalizing US relations with Cuba, including lifting the 54-year-old trade embargo and resuming diplomatic relations with the island nation. That includes substantial majorities in three South Florida counties with symbolic significance for the Cuban-American community. And it comes just as the two candidates for Florida governor have marked out opposing stances on the issue, with the Republican-turned-Democrat challenger Charlie Crist calling for the end of the US embargo earlier this month.

Politico notes that during a recent appearance on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher”, Crist told the host, “I don’t think [the embargo] worked. It is obvious to me that we need to move forward and I think get the embargo taken away.” He added, “From a selfish point of view as a Floridian, I’d like to see that happen because a lot of construction would be required on the island, and South Florida could be the launching pad for all of that and really create some jobs for the people of my state.” When Maher said that not many Florida politicians were willing to “stand up” to the Cuban-American community’s traditional support for the embargo, Crist responded, “Well, I think they need to. I think it’s the right thing." Politifact notes that his stance represents a turnaround from the one he held as Florida governor.

That sparked a spat between Crist and Florida Governor Rick Scott, who at the end of January was trailing Crist by eight points. "Our Cuban community needs to be stood up for," said Scott, adding, "The importance of maintaining the embargo is that it stands for the Cuban people's right to be free.” And on the eve of the poll’s release, the Miami Herald reported that Governor Scott is still betting that the historic Cuban-American community in South Florida still supports the embargo, telling the Herald he “absolutely” thought so.

The Associated Press notes that the new poll didn’t specifically mention the “embargo”, instead asking respondents about the principal tenets of it. But other polls carried out in the past few decades appear to indicate that attitudes among the Cuban-American community toward the US embargo have been shifting. In 2011, 56 percent of Miami-Dade Cuban-Americans said they favored the embargo, compared to 85 percent who told pollsters in 1993 that they favored tightening it.