In his small eyeglass business in North Lauderdale, Florida, optometrist Champ Pierre is adamant: He liked Donald Trump; he voted for him in 2016 and 2020. He was even preparing to put his name on the ballot again this year. But since the September 10 presidential debate between Kamala Harris and the Republican — and the populist’s racist statement about Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, whom he accused of eating their neighbors’ pets — things have changed.
“He’s going off the rails,” says the Haitian-American who moved to Florida more than 30 years ago. “He had a political program that interested me. But now, all he does is spread hate. I’ll tell you the truth: If he becomes president of the United States again, the world is over.”
A palpable wind of anger has been blowing in recent days over the Haitian community in Florida, the largest in the country, since the insidious rumor spread by the Republican presidential candidate in front of 67 million viewers at the beginning of the month.
Remarks described as “odious” and “degrading” by many people here, and which, a few weeks before the November election, could catch up with the former president on the electoral terrain of this state, which has sunk into radical conservatism in recent years – and on which the Haitian community has just found a good reason to sanction him.
“His strategy of attacking a minority to attract the racist vote is going to backfire on him in Florida,” predicts John Henry, an operator at WSFR radio station in North Miami, which broadcasts in English, French and Creole in South Florida. And where, since the presidential debate, the voices of the hosts and listeners have been expressed daily with force and indignation against the threat posed by the Republican. “He had some support in the community, but he clearly doesn’t have any more. And it’s not impossible that the Republican vote in Florida, where millions of immigrants live, will shrink considerably,” thus offering the Democrats a new chance to reconquer the state.
The target is not going to be easy to hit in the “Sunshine state “, which Donald Trump won with a majority of 371,000 votes in 2020 against Joe Biden, 260,000 more than in his face-off with Hillary Clinton in 2016. A math in which voters from the state’s 544,000 Haitian community members – three times more than in Canada – hope to come and play spoilsport this year.
“He put us on the front line with the absurd rumor he spread about us during the debate,” summarizes Lucky Brav, an entrepreneur we met in the Haitian neighborhood of North Miami Beach. “We could try to make history and this election campaign in another way: by taking Florida out of his hands.”
Stimulate participation
In his Fort Lauderdale office, Ronald Surin, president of the Haitian American Democrats Club, said he has been working hard for several days to channel the anger he feels around him into a concrete vote for the Democratic candidate.
On his phone screen, he also presents the draft of an advertising poster that his political organization is preparing to have installed next month on a few huge billboards along the I-95 highway, which runs along the Atlantic coast of the state, between Palm Beach, the populist’s stronghold, and the counties of Broward and Miami-Dade. The message denounces the racist rhetoric of the former president and calls on Floridians, as a whole, to make the decent choice by voting for Kamala Harris.
“Donald Trump is xenophobic. There’s nothing new,” he says. “After calling our country a ‘shithole’ a few years ago, he’s now making us look like pet eaters. It’s deeply insulting. Haitians know who they are. They came here to give themselves a better future. They’ve become entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists, doctors, health care workers… who contribute to the economic and social influence of the country.”
He adds: “Ironically, the federal prosecutor in charge of prosecuting Ryan Routh [l’homme qui aurait cherché à assassiner l’ex-président dimanche dernier sur son golf de West Palm Beach] is a lawyer of Haitian origin. “Markenzy Lapointe, that’s his name. “He was born and raised in Haiti before coming to settle in Florida, where he is a citizen integrated into his society who, like all the others, does not deserve to be turned into a scapegoat by a candidate for the American presidency,” he adds.
Stirring up hatred
Earlier this week, the city of Springfield, Ohio, had to tighten security around two elementary schools attended by the children of the 15,000 Haitians who have come to the city legally in recent years to work and reinvigorate a local economy that has been struggling since the turn of the century.
The baseless claims made by Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance and then echoed by Donald Trump in the televised debate have led to a series of bomb threats against schools and led to militants from white supremacist groups like the Proud Boys and the Ku Klux Klan marching through the streets of the small industrial city last weekend, handing out hate-filled leaflets and calling for Haitians to flee the area.
“Donald Trump is putting people’s lives at risk with his inflammatory rhetoric,” Lucky Brav says. “And it’s a threat that’s not just for Haitians anymore, but for everyone.” The young entrepreneur admits to having been hesitant about voting this year, after years of staying away from the polls and politics, he says. “But this year, I’ve decided, I’m going to exercise my right to vote and it won’t be to give my vote to Donald Trump, but rather to put an end to all this nonsense.”
“We intend to tip the balance in the vote,” says Ronald Surin, while acknowledging that there are still, despite everything, several members of his community “hooked” on the Republican candidate. “Pastors are sensitive to the Republican discourse against abortion or homosexuality. Old people appreciate the image of the strong man that Donald Trump gives off. But the more we continue to circulate information on the negative impact of this candidate on immigrants, the more our chances of convincing people to vote against him will increase.”
“Donald Trump made a promise during his presidency to help Haiti and deliver us from the criminal gangs that are terrorizing the country. But he has done nothing,” Champ Pierre said. “We now know that he is nothing more than a liar. And he proved it once again in the debate.”
For Ediberto Roman, a law professor and specialist in migration flows at Florida International University, it is very likely that voters offended by Donald Trump’s remarks “will come back to bite him in the November elections,” he says.
“But I’m also a bit cynical. For the 500,000 Haitians in Florida he outraged, he’s certainly also strengthened the convictions of thousands of other voters with his hateful rhetoric. For years, he’s campaigned on the frustrations of the white population, which is what brought him to power in 2016. We’re far from immune to hate in America. And Donald Trump is increasingly counting on it to return to the White House.”
This report was financed with the support of the Transat International Journalism Fund-The Duty.