South Florida Democrats rally in celebration,
Maximo Reyes’ voice cracked as he hollered over a celebratory chorus of bells, screams and honks in downtown Miami on Saturday afternoon. He’d cast a ballot in the U.S. presidential election for the first time, and his side of the ticket was projected to win. The victory of former Vice President Joe Biden and running mate Sen. Kamala Harris filled the Dominican Republic native with pride.
“My first vote went to Biden because my conscience told me not to vote for a crazy man because in my country, we had a crazy man,” said Reyes, referring to former Dominican Republic president Hipólito Mejía. The 55-year-old port worker became a citizen three months before the election after 30 years in the U.S. He said President Donald Trump was worse than Mejía, whose presidency was marred by scandal and economic crisis. “He was crazy, and this
one was crazier still,” Reyes said, one hand on a large Dominican flag. His was one of many Cuban, Costa Rican, Jamaican, Pride and U.S. flags that waved in Saturday’s drizzly breeze.
Reyes pushed his words out from behind a blue surgical mask as hundreds descended on downtown.
“That’s why I’m proud that I voted for Joe Biden.”
Biden was projected to win the presidential election Saturday morning, and joy spilled into the streets in many major U.S. cities. People popped bottles of champagne in Times
Square in New York City, danced in the street in San Francisco and hoisted signs saying “You’re fired!” outside the White House in Washington, D.C. It did not take long for Miamians to hoot and holler from their balconies in Brickell, to shake their hips on Biscayne Boulevard as they banged wooden spoons on
cazuelas, and to lay on their car horns as they greeted revelers cheering the news. Hispanic, Black and white people turned out for the victory party.
About 13 miles west in Miami-Dade’s suburbs, a somewhat different mood took hold. A few hundred Trump supporters gathered outside La Carreta restaurant in Olympia Heights to extol the incumbent, praise Trump’s victory in Florida and protest what they consider electoral fraud.
“I left Cuba to find liberty. We have liberty here,” said Luz Domínguez, who was born in Camagüey. They commanded their own flurry of car honks as they chanted “four more years.” Some screamed “f--- the communists” while others spoke of the fear that the oppression they left behind in their native countries may now manifest in the U.S.
The president’s baseless claims of fraud echoed in front of the popular Cuban eatery, fueling doubt among some of his most fervent supporters.
“The robbery of this election will be resolved in the courts,” Domínguez said.
Such is the political landscape in Miami-Dade, where a large Democratic base is contoured by a Republican contingent that firmly rejects progressive policies amid the specter of socialism. Biden won Miami-Dade, but Trump had a strong showing, buoyed by conservative Hispanics from Cuba and a range of Central and South American countries.
The elation and anger played out under a fastdarkening sky the day before winds are expected to pick up as Tropical Storm Eta approaches. For Bruce Barham, 71, a motion picture camera operator who lives downtown, the gloomy weather did little to dampen the mood.
“I’m absolutely so enthusiastic about the incoming Biden/Harris administration,” he said, clutching a Costa Rican flag “We finally crossed the threshold of almost four years of a disastrous time in American political history, so we’re well on our way to putting that all behind us, and we’re looking forward to getting this America back together again.”
Capping months of a grueling, bitter campaign and an anxious week of waiting for key battleground states to count the deluge of mail-in ballots, the result became clear Saturday morning after multiple media organizations projected Biden and Harris to win the White House. Around 11:30 a.m., the Associated Press declared the Democratic ticket winners after calling Pennsylvania for Biden and Harris, securing the nominees enough electoral votes to win the election.
Trump, who was golfing at his course in Sterling, Virginia, when the news broke, did not concede. He vowed to continue waging a legal battle to attack the credibility of the election.
ELATION AND ANGER
On Miami’s waterfront, Saturday was time to celebrate.
As the cheers reverberated among Brickell’s highrise towers. In downtown, 44-year-old businessman Miguel Rodriguez said what Trump did to Puerto Rico, his homeland, will never be forgotten.
“The feeling is amazing,” he said. “It’s been four years of oppression, racism,” he said. “All the Puerto Ricans in Pittsburgh, in Philadelphia, in Orlando, in Miami, we just sent a huge message to him and to the huge Republican Party that Puerto Rico, you need to respect it. When he had the opportunity to go over there to Puerto Rico and help after Hurricane Maria, he just threw paper towels to us. Now we’re sending back a huge message through our votes and for him to leave the White House.”
What started with about two dozen people started growing quickly as condo dwellers walked over and passersby parked to join the party.
“I was just riding by celebrating something, which I think is great for the country , something that’s great for this world, something that’s great for this city and for the Latino community in this city. So I’m here to celebrate,” said cyclist Collin Laverty, 37, who put down his bike and joined in.
An anti-embargo activist who owns the travel agency Cuban Educational Travel, Laverty said he voted for Biden, and he did it “thinking of my country and thinking of the world, Cubans in Cuba and here in Miami.”
The crowd briefly blocked part of Biscayne Boulevard and started dancing to salsa while waving Biden/Harris banners along with Cuban and U.S. flags. They chanted “Pa fuera, pa la calle” as the song played in the background. People shook maracas as they banged pots. Someone inflated a blowup baby Donald Trump wearing diapers.
Miami police officers corralled the crowd back onto the sidewalk to keep traffic flowing.
Among those who stopped by the celebration was Jorge Moreno, a Cuban-American musician and winner of the 2002 Latin Grammy Award for Best New Artist, his wife America and their three kids. The family was traveling in their red pickup truck when they stopped in front of the Freedom Tower to join the celebration.
It wasn’t just passing motorists honking. As a train came through at 2:35 p.m., the conductor honked, to which the crowd, dancing to Celia Cruz’s “Quimbara,” reacted by screaming in approval and waving Biden/Harris flags.
In nearby Overtown, about a dozen cars formed a caravan organized through text messages and social media by the MiamiDade Democratic Black Caucus. Sharon Frazier, 57, was the first to arrive.
“We fought hard,” Frazier said after pulling into an Overtown parking lot in her Toyota Camry.
She was in her sister’s living room at the Liberty Square housing complex when Channel 7 announced Biden was the winner.. She’s had her Biden/Harris placards since August.
“We’ve been knocking on doors. We helped senior citizens with their absentee ballots,” she said. “Our votes count.”
“Today is a day of great relief,” said Norman Whyte, vice president of the caucus, amid honks from cars driving by the caravan’s Biden/Harris flag. “I have not slept for three days watching this.”
In Olympia Heights, as the rain grew stronger around 6 p.m., the proTrump demonstration grew louder. Some insisted although the president has not presented any evidence of electoral fraud, proof exists and it will come out through the courts.
Martín Bermúdez, who migrated from El Salvador in 1981 because of the Civil War there, brought the “MAGA limousine,” a black car decorated with some American politicians like Trump, and parked it under the neon La Carreta sign.
Bermúdez, 49, said he decided to come out to strengthen the protest because “the Democrats are trying to steal the election.”
“It’s statistically impossible that when they drop 100,000 or more ballots now they’re all for Biden,” he claimed. He said he asked his son, 11, if that sounded right. He said his son replied, “Not possible.”
As the sky opened over downtown, two young Trump supporters arrived. They waved oversized blue and white Trump 2020 banners. The pair seemed unfazed as the crowd of Biden/Harris supporters screamed at them to go away. Max McClilmans, 16, of West Palm Beach, said the president’s critics have been unfair to him by calling him racist and ignoring contributions to the Black community.
And while he wasn’t old enough to vote, Max unapologetically stated: “I can still support my president.”’
The teen said he personally doesn’t think the election results are fraudulent as Trump has said, but he blamed “media corruption that for four years has presented fake news” for Trump’s loss.
FLORIDA POLITICIANS REACT
Former Florida Republican Gov. Jeb Bush was the first major GOP figure from the state to congratulate Biden. “Congratulations to President-elect Biden,” tweeted Bush, who ran for president in 2016. “I have prayed for our President most of my adult life. I will be praying for you and your success. Now is the time to heal deep wounds. Many are counting on you to lead the way.“
Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, had a sharper response for Trump.
“You’re FIRED!,” she tweeted. “Let me know if you need help applying for unemployment in Florida!”
Incoming Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who won election to the countywide non-partisan position as a Democrat on Tuesday, said Harris “has made her mark on history and will blaze a path for millions of girls who for the very first time will see a woman occupy our nation’s second highest post.”
“I am confident that they will lead us through this incredibly difficult time by confronting and working to control the threat of coronavirus, and rebuild our economy stronger than before,’ Levine Cava tweeted. “After a long and contested election season, now is the time to come together as a community and country, and I look forward to working with the Biden administration on solutions and critical resources that will help Miami-Dade’s families and businesses overcome this crisis.”
In a tweet three hours after Biden became the projected winner, Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott did not congratulate the president-elect and did not acknowledge that Biden is the likely winner.
“The voters get to decide who the president is,” tweeted Scott, who served as the state’s governor from 2011 to 2019. “This is a close race and Donald Trump will and should use every avenue at his disposal to make sure every legal vote is counted.”
Marcos Jimenez, a former U.S. Attorney and stalwart Republican until Trump’s nomination in 2016, said he was “both elated and relieved to see Biden win this election.
“The American people have voted for a man who wants to unite us rather than divide us,” he said. “They have rejected hate, fear, xenophobia, and most importantly to me, the racism and white supremacy of Donald Trump.”
Jacqueline Charles: 305-376-2616, @jacquiecharles
Miami Herald staff writers Douglas Hanks, Jay Weaver and Mary Ellen Klas contributed to this report.