Data show that Democrats’ lead slipped by more than 10% among registered Latino voters in Osceola County in the 2020 presidential election, down from the 2016 totals. Those results mirror a similar, widely observed trend in Miami-Dade County.

During the 2022 election cycle, the Florida Democratic Party hired a Statewide Hispanic Voter Contact director and increased bilingual staff, hoping to reach a broader pool of Latino voters. 

Edison Denizard-Velez, who showed up Tuesday to vote in St. Cloud, said he is open to voting for either party, depending on the candidate. 

“We vote for Democrats, we vote for Republicans,” he said. “State, commissioner, governor, all those seats we have the chance to select.”  

For Mariel DeVictoria, this election represented her second time voting. Like many other young voters, she said that losing abortion rights in the U.S. animated her politically. For DeVictoria, that meant getting to the polls. 

“I’ve always cared about women’s rights and women’s reproductive rights," she said. "It made me mad because it affects me, and people my age."

DeVictoria said she sees a generational split over issues like abortion among Latinos. 

“A lot of older people care about what they think versus the people it really affects,” she said.

As the election season progresses, experts say that continued energetic appeals to Latino swing voters should be expected from Republicans and Democrats alike.