The demographics in the key swing state of Florida are difficult for Republican Donald Trump, but one factor keeping him in the race is a large influx of white retirees, The Wall Street Journal reports.
With 29 electoral votes, Florida is the biggest prize of the swing states. President Barack Obama captured the Sunshine State by less than 1 percent in the last election, according to the Journal. Since then, the demographic trend has become more favorable to Democrats, as the share of eligible voters who are non-Hispanic whites has fallen to 67 percent in 2012 to the current 64 percent.
This is due to a huge influx of Hispanics since the last election, reports the Journal, especially from economically troubled Puerto Rico, most of whom tend to vote Democratic.
But two trends are helping keep Trump competitive in Florida, according to the Journal. First, many of the Hispanic newcomers are too busy trying to get their lives established in their new home that they have not bothered to become politically involved or even register to vote, thus diminishing somewhat the influence of their numbers.
The second trend helping Trump is that Florida has seen a large upswing in the arrival of white retirees in recent years, many of whom come from pro-Republican areas of the country.
Trump is leading in the state polls among white seniors by 20 percentage points over Democrat Hillary Clinton, a major factor in keeping the real estate mogul within two percentage points of Clinton in Florida's polls overall.
Politico reports that one contributing factor of this influx of white seniors is that Republicans have added 70,000 more voters to their rolls than Democrats have in the state in recent months.
As part of the effort to expand this trend, the Trump campaign has recently been opening some two dozen field offices throughout Florida in order to bolster the almost previously non-existent ground game in the must-win state, Bloomberg reports.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.