(AFP) – After he voted for Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, Kenny Ramirez said the price of equipment and supplies needed to run his barbershop in Pennsylvania went up. Ramirez, a 35-year-old Dominican-American who lives in the majority-Hispanic city of Reading, is emblematic of a number of Latino men who moved in greater numbers toward Trump this election. Disillusioned with the Biden administration, Ramirez told AFP he was frustrated by a lack of help for small businesses and its inability to stop the surge in undocumented immigrants at the southern border.
“I thought there was going to be change,” said Ramirez, who voted for Trump in the November 5 election. “And I didn’t see it.” While Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris carried the overall Hispanic vote, a majority of Latino men — 54 percent — voted for the bombastic Republican businessman, according to NBC exit polls. The trend seemed to hold true in Berks County, where Reading is located, with Trump securing a strong victory, winning nearly 6,000 more votes compared to the 2020 election. Nationally, Trump’s win in Pennsylvania and all six other swing states, as well as in the popular vote, marked a decisive victory over Harris.
“I voted for Trump because I thought he was the best choice for the economy,” Ramirez said as he stood in his shop, cutting and trimming hair.
– ‘Olympic gold medalist’ –
In Reading, where nearly 70 percent of the population is Hispanic, Joseph Nunez, 39, is the first Latino to serve as chairman of the local Republican Party. He has logged thousands of miles in a mobile office van he calls “Hercules” to convince Hispanic voters and other groups to join the party. Nunez said he has spent six years promoting the Republican cause locally, which helped Trump make inroads with Hispanic voters in 2024.
“I feel like an Olympic gold medalist right now,” Nunez said. “I feel like someone who just gave it their all, and finally got a win in the end.” That win includes voters such as Bryant Morales, who said he used to be a Democrat. That is, until Trump entered national politics.
“He showed me that I’m a Republican now,” the 35-year-old, who voted for Trump in all the recent elections, told AFP while sitting in Ramirez’s barbershop. “When you see the Democrats who are in office, they didn’t really do much,” he added. Morales, who is Dominican-American and works as a car salesman, said he thinks Trump’s business background makes him a better steward of the economy.
“He can make the economy better as a business, because he’s going to take America as a business,” Morales said.
– ‘It baffles me’ –
Kevin Boughter, chairman of the Berks County Democratic Committee, said he was at a loss for why an increasing number of Hispanic men are rallying behind Trump given the candidate’s history of disparaging comments about Latino communities and immigrants. “It baffles me,” Boughter said in his office, looking over election figures. “I don’t understand it.”
Boughter said he came to worry that the Harris campaign wasn’t paying enough attention to this part of Pennsylvania as Election Day neared. Harris did eventually come to Reading — on the very last day of the presidential race. She visited a Puerto Rican restaurant and knocked on a few voters’ doors in between campaign stops.
“I wish it would have been more,” Boughter said. As Trump prepares to take office and assembles his cabinet, Morales, the car salesman, remains optimistic.
“We gambled on Trump, we voted for Trump,” he said. “Now we’ve got to let him do his work and we’re going to see what happens.”
– Bastien INZAURRALDE
© 2024 AFP
