A push to normalize Cuba relations is a ‘tacit acknowledgement’ that Florida ‘doesn’t matter’ to House Democrats: journalist

In a December 14 letter to President Joe Biden, more than 100 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives called for the Biden Administration to normalize relations with Cuba and remove the pro-embargo policies of the Trump Administration. But according to Politico’s Gary Fineout, the Biden Administration has yet to commit to such a policy.

Fineout explains, “It should be noted that Democrats from Florida are not on board. And at this time, neither is the White House. The Washington Post reported that when asked, the State Department continued to say that Cuba policy remains ‘under review.’ This is essentially the status quo and the same line the Biden Administration has said for most of the year, even after protests broke out in the country over the summer.”

Although Florida is a swing state, it’s also a state where Democrats — as Never Trump conservative Rick Wilson put it — “struggle” and often have a hard time getting past the finish line in statewide races. Now-President Joe Biden narrowly lost Florida to then-President Donald Trump in 2020’s presidential election, and Democrat Andrew Gillum narrowly lost to far-right Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida’s 2018 gubernatorial election. Moreover, three-term Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson was voted out of office in Florida that year when he lost that U.S. Senate race to now-Sen. Rick Scott.

Fineout notes the difference between Florida Democrats and many non-Florida House Democrats when it comes to Cuba policy.

“From a political calculus, a large group of Democrats calling on the White House to reinstate policies from the Obama Administration is a tacit acknowledgment that Florida doesn’t matter anymore,” Fineout writes. “Trump defeated Biden in Florida in 2020 in no small part due to the inroads Trump made in Miami-Dade County among Hispanic voters. Florida Democrats were already upset about the Biden Administration's decision to remove a largely defunct Colombian rebel group from a list of terrorist organizations.”