MIAMI (NewsNation) — Former President Donald Trump will look to upstage the GOP primary debate Wednesday evening with a rally targeting South Florida’s Cuban community not far away.
While the debate is expected to focus mostly on Israel and foreign policy — and who can beat Trump — the former president is likely to talk about immigration in the majority-Hispanic community of Hialeah.
The rally in the Cuban American stronghold of Hialeah is aimed in part at boosting Trump’s support among Hispanics in Florida, campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said. Trump’s support among Hispanics, the fastest-growing ethnic and racial group in the U.S. electorate, swelled during his 2020 campaign.
Miami-Dade is Florida’s most populous county and home to 1.5 million Hispanics of voting age. Democrat Hillary Clinton carried the county over Trump by nearly 30 percentage points in 2016. Trump cut that margin to 7 percentage points against Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.
Ron DeSantis won the county outright in his reelection campaign for governor in 2022, winning 65% of the Hispanic vote in a landslide victory that suggested a massive shift toward the Republicans in just six years.
Trump’s support is so strong in Hialeah, which is 96% Hispanic, that Mayor Esteban Bovo said he would ask the city council to consider renaming a street after the former president. While he likes DeSantis, Bovo is endorsing Trump.
The two-hour GOP debate will be moderated by NBC News anchors Lester Holt and Kristen Welker and conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt, who hosts a morning talk show for the Salem Radio Network.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.