Trump cleans up Allentown as Puerto Rican voters swing away

On October 30, 2024By Littum

Victor Martinez’s radio stations were flooded with calls. Yesenia Westerband’s food truck customers were buzzing about it. Guillermo Lopez’s Facebook feed was full of comments.

“Como Puertorriqueño te diré que eso no tiene manera de disculparse!!!” one listener commented on Martinez’s show. “As a Puerto Rican, no apology will do.”

As Donald Trump descended on Allentown, Pennsylvania on Tuesday for an appearance, remarks made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at the former president’s Madison Square Guardian event on Sunday, calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of trash” shot through society’s big Puerto Rico -population.

Martinez, Westerband and Lopez are all of Puerto Rican heritage and said Hinchcliffe’s comments spoke volumes for the bulk of Hispanic cities, igniting the community and likely shifting votes.

“It’s everywhere right now what happened at Madison Square Garden,” said Westerband, who moved from Puerto Rico to the Lehigh Valley when she was six and lived on the island again after high school before moving back to Pennsylvania.

For many Puerto Ricans, the “garbage” comments were an October surprise that shocked and engaged them on the cusp of a major election where their votes could be decisive, said Martinez, who owns a chain of five Pennsylvania radio stations based in Allentown .

Pennsylvania is the most contested and consistent swing state and home to the fourth largest Puerto Rican population in the country. With 19 Electoral College votes to win, the state has nearly 500,000 Puerto Ricans, according to Census data. President Joe Biden won the state by just 80,555 votes in 2020.

“Boricuas a votar Pennsylvania Wisconsin,” commented one listener on the show’s YouTube channel. “Boricuas let’s vote in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, strength with the old convict who thinks he is God.”

New York State Senator Gustavo Rivera, who was born and raised in Puerto Rico and now represents the Bronx, believes Hinchcliffe’s comments will have negative effects on the Trump campaign.

He noted that the remarks have spread like wildfire across the Puerto Rican community from New York to Florida to Pennsylvania — and said he has received numerous texts and Facebook messages from Boricuas across the country.

“This is an important turning point,” he said. “It definitely wakes up a lot of people. I hope that’s the energy we take into the last few days.”

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Trump campaigns try to create calm as fallout grows

The Trump campaign rejected Hinchcliffe’s comments, saying they do not reflect the views of the former president.

Trump told ABC News that he doesn’t know the comedian and didn’t hear his remarks, and simply reiterated that he didn’t when asked to share his thoughts on the Puerto Rico joke.

Trump did not address the controversy during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach on Tuesday. He called the Madison Square Garden rally, where speakers made racist, misogynistic and other controversial remarks, a “love fest.”

“No president has done more for Puerto Rico than I have,” Trump said later in the day at a forum in Pennsylvania, without directly mentioning Hinchcliffe’s remarks.

Prominent Hispanic Republicans joined the former president at his rally in Allentown on Tuesday. He asked Shadow US Senator Zoraida Buxó of Puerto Rico to join him on stage.

“The people of Puerto Rico trust you,” said Buxó, who is part of Puerto Rico’s shadow delegation that favors statehood but does not have a vote, adding: “We need this man back in the White House. “

Trump declared that “no one loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do” and again claimed that he has done more for the island than any other president. He mentioned the two hurricanes that affected Puerto Rico in 2017 during his presidency and said he sent a hospital ship to the island.

Trump’s response after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico was heavily criticized.

An inspector general’s report found that tensions within the Republican administration led to delays in the disbursement of congressionally authorized funds. The mayor of Puerto Rico’s capital and others criticized the former president for throwing paper towels into a crowd when he visited the island.

A Republican consultant close to the campaign said Trump’s team is projecting calm amid the fallout from the Madison Square Garden rally, telling allies to point to Trump adviser Danielle Alvarez’s statement saying, “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign .”

“I think they wish it had never happened … it just takes air time and oxygen,” the consultant said, adding, “no way was this helpful.” However, the individual questioned whether it would have much of an impact, saying most people have already made up their minds.

Another GOP consultant with close ties to some of Trump’s campaign teams said, “I don’t think they’re that concerned, it was an event and a news cycle.”

But in a close election where a few thousand votes could make the difference, the consultant said, “at the very least … it’s an unnecessary headache that could potentially hurt them at the polls at a time when they can least afford it. “

The comments about the ‘waste island’ are on the minds of swing voters

Westerband is very proud of her Puerto Rican roots and said it was hurtful to hear the island where she was born called “garbage.”

Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and those born there are U.S. citizens, but it often feels like the island is “treated like this extra piece that’s not part” of the country, Westerband said.

The food truck owner doesn’t consider himself particularly political and doesn’t make up his mind until it’s time to vote. She is a Democrat and voted for Biden in 2020, but has also supported Republicans.

“I’m not swinging either way yet, I’m not going to say which way I’m voting yet,” she said.

The “garbage” comments are certainly on her mind, however, and many people she knows, including customers at her two food trucks that sell traditional Puerto Rican dishes.

“I know there’s a lot of changing of minds and changing of hearts,” she said.

Republican consultant Mike Madrid said there are about 33,500 Puerto Rican voters in Allentown alone.

“The racial slurs at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally could cost him the election,” said Madrid, author of “The Latino Century: How America’s Largest Minority Is Transforming Democracy.”

Madrid added, “Even if it just marginally moves Pennsylvania, it’s game over — and it’s likely to move Latinos and Republicans there.”

Martinez, the radio station’s owner, does a morning political segment that usually lasts 20 to 30 minutes, but went on for more than an hour Monday because so many people wanted to talk about Hinchcliffe’s comments.

Martinez is a Democrat and supports Kamala Harris and was even featured in one of her campaign ads. His mind was already made up. However, many of his listeners who responded to the “rubbish” comments were people who were not politically active and are now moving out of the sidelines.

“A lot of the comments we’ve received, the calls we’ve received, have been people who didn’t care, weren’t engaged,” Martinez said. “They had enough of all that talk about politics, and now their pride is suddenly hurt, and now they have to vote.”

Martinez’s stations in Philadelphia, Allentown, Reading, Harrisburg, Lancaster and York reach about 250,000 Latinos, he said, most of them of Puerto Rican descent.

Guillermo Lopez was born in Bethlehem near Allentown after his father was recruited from Puerto Rico to work at the Bethlehem Steel Mill. Lopez followed his father into the mill and worked there for 27 years.

A former union leader, he has been involved in Democratic politics for decades and is also a leading figure in the region’s Hispanic community, serving as vice chair of The Hispanic Center Lehigh Valley.

Lopez has opposed Trump since the former president descended the golden escalator at Trump Tower in 2015 to declare his first campaign.

“As a Latino, as a Puerto Rican, it’s just been disgusting the whole time,” Lopez said of Trump’s tenure at the height of American politics. “He started with a dog whistle… but now they have a full bull horn.”

Lopez is a vocal activist. But now, after Hinchcliffe’s comments, even people he knows who haven’t been vocal about politics are speaking out. He cited three different Facebook friends who wrote that they didn’t want to vote, but now do.

“Since this happened, it’s like somebody sent a bat signal and they’re coming out of the woodwork,” he said.

Cast: Rebecca Morin and David Jackson