Hialeah, Fla.—It’s in this Cuban-dominated enclave of red-trending Miami-Dade County where Donald Trump is seeking to upstage his lower-polling primary rivals Wednesday evening. The former president’s rally is slated to kick off at 7 P.M. in the Republican stronghold of Hialeah, one hour before a handful of Republican presidential candidates are set to take the stage a few miles away in Miami for this year’s third Republican presidential debate.
Hialeah mayor Esteban Bovo says it’s wise for Trump to skip the debate. Participating would constitute punching down, he says, given the former president’s current lock on the early state GOP primary electorate even as he battles four criminal indictments.
He predicts anywhere between 12,000 to 15,000 people will show up for tonight’s Trump rally. “We had some people sleep there last night,” Bovo told National Review Tuesday morning in Trigo Café, a Cuban coffee shop in one of Florida’s most populous and Hispanic cities. “All the calls I’ve been getting over the last week or so or two weeks since he announced that he’s going to come to Hialeah have all been about: ‘Can you give me tickets? Can I get a picture with him? Are you going to see him? Can I get close to him?'” He chuckled that “nobody’s asked” for tickets to the debate.
Counter-programming this evening’s debate is a calculated decision by the Trump team to energize his Hispanic Republican base in Florida, home to the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort where his lead rival, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, is currently serving his second term.
Bovo says Republican voters in Hialeah appreciate DeSantis’ governance — and his pandemic record in particular — but think 2024 is not his time to shine.
“They love the governor,” Bovo says. “But when you ask them about Donald Trump, they say, ‘Well, he owes himself to Donald Trump,'” Bovo said. “I don’t know what’s going on in Iowa. I don’t know what’s going on in New Hampshire, but in Florida,” Bovo adds, “there’s a sense that they’d rather see DeSantis wait his turn.”
He’s hardly the only Republican politician in Florida to sour on his own governor’s chances of defeating Trump in the 2024 presidential primary. DeSantis’ second-place standing in the GOP primary has crumbled in recent months amid former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley’s polling surge, particularly in New Hampshire. And just this morning, the Financial Times reported that the Florida governor’s biggest 2024 presidential donor, Robert Bigelow, is now considering backing Trump.
A DeSantis spokesman declined to comment for this article.
Wednesday’s debate and Trump rally come on the heels of a rough off-cycle Election Night for GOP candidates nationwide. Yes, GOP governor Tate Reeves held on to his seat in Mississippi, and Republicans netted key victories in several local New York races. But Democrats walloped Republicans in the Kentucky governor’s race, a Pennsylvania supreme court race, and an Ohio abortion ballot initiative — despite Democratic president Joe Biden’s poll numbers remaining underwater a year out from Election Day in 2024.