ORLANDO, Fla. — The Race for the White House is squarely focused on race itself. 

While white voters in Florida largely outnumber minority voters, the Biden and Trump campaigns have spent considerable resources to court Black, Hispanic, and other minority voters. 

“The president’s failure to denounce white supremacy, I believe, will play a heavy role in those going to the polls to vote,” Patricia Rumph, a Pine Hills community activist, said.

Rumph has voted in every election since 1973, when she turned 18. 

“It does say a lot about who you are as to how you value your community,” Rumph said of voting. 

While left-leaning efforts have built campaigns against the president based upon high profile police-involved deaths of those like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the Trump campaign focuses on economics, saying it is reaching out to minority voters by showing how the Trump administration has improved the economic standing of minority families. 

“We have to look at a holistic approach to solving these complex issues,” Glenton Gilzean, president/chief executive officer of Urban League of Central Florida, said. “Elected leadership, they’re the ones who set policy. They’re the ones who create the rules.”

Urban League does not endorse candidates, but Gilzean said the local Central Florida chapter he oversees has seen an increase in volunteers wanting to help increase voter turnout. 

The value of voting lies in the fact that it is the purest way to create change, Gilzean said.

“We hire our leaders to make decisions for us, so if you don’t get up and do your part by voting, you’re losing the opportunity,” Gilzean said. “So when we look at some systemic problems, some of it is due to lack of voting.” 

Those systemic problems affecting Black families in particular range from health to housing, jobs, and education, Gilzean said.

The Federal Reserve released a study last week showing that Black households continue to have far less income and net worth compared to Hispanic and white households. 

Florida also has fewer Black voters compared to Hispanic and white voters, but Gilzean said the value of each vote, nonetheless, is the same. 

“Politicians know how to count,” community activist Rod Love said. “They can count constituents that come out and vote.”

Love is now in the private sector but is a former Orange County commissioner and Florida Department of Juvenile Justice official serving under governors Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist. 

“It is incumbent upon citizens in those communities to go vote so those folks who make decisions relative to money, policy, they see where they need to go,” Love said. 

Love, however, cautions candidates not to take Black voters, or any voters, for granted, but to understand many may vote not based on politicians but rather the policies that politicians will push to best improve lives. 

Florida Population in 2019, By Race*

Total Population: 21.4 million
White: 77.3 percent
Black: 16.9 percent
Hispanic: 26.4 percent
*Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Number of Voters**

2020
State White Voters: 8,617,345
State Black Voters: 1,867,106
State Hispanic Voters: 2,373,919

Orange White Voters: 379,394
Orange Black Voters: 139,887
Orange Hispanic Voters: 206,166

2018
State White Voters: 8,387,823
State Black Voters: 1,764,586
State Hispanic Voters: 2,194,063

Orange White Voters: 374,467
Orange Black Voters: 134,467
Orange Hispanic Voters: 199,435

2016
State White Voters: 8,264,928
State Black Voters: 1,723,402
State Hispanic Voters: 2,023,850

Orange White Voters: 376,789
Orange Black Voters: 134,256
Orange Hispanic Voters: 182,900
**Source: Florida Department of State