Left: President Donald J. Trump waves and gives a thumbs-up as he disembarks Air Force One Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian) Right: Judge Barbara Lagoa. Photo courtesy of the Florida Supreme Court.
In The Wall Street Journal, Jason L. Riley praises Judge Barbara Lagoa, endorsing her as a replacement for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing (abridged):
President Trump has said he will nominate a replacement for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg later this week, and it’s no surprise that Judge Barbara Lagoa is high on his short list.
Judge Lagoa was nominated in 2019 to serve on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and confirmed by the Senate with bipartisan support. Moreover, she’s Cuban-American, a Florida native and the first Hispanic woman to sit on the Florida Supreme Court. If the president doesn’t win Florida, he almost certainly doesn’t win a second term. And without Cuban-American support, he doesn’t win Florida.
The Trump campaign got some good news earlier this month when a poll showed Joe Biden significantly underperforming in Florida’s most populous county, Miami-Dade, compared with Hillary Clinton four years ago. According to the poll, Mr. Biden has a 17-point lead, while Mrs. Clinton won the county by 30 points in 2016.
Not only do a sizable number of Cuban-Americans live in the Sunshine State, but so do an increasing number of people from Venezuela, Nicaragua and Colombia. These are the groups in 2018 who helped put Republican Ron DeSantis in the governor’s mansion and Republican Rick Scott in the U.S. Senate.
Mr. Trump received just 46.1% of the popular vote in 2016 and still won the Electoral College. Four years earlier, Mitt Romney won 47.2% of the popular vote—a full percentage point more—and lost the Electoral College in a landslide. The margins in Florida and other battleground states are what counts, and Hispanic voters have the potential to make a big difference on the margins.
By Jason L. Riley
