What A Day The Sunshine State Strategy
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Jan 28, 2026 Patricia Mazzei, Miami bureau chief for The New York Times who covers South Florida politics, discusses Cuban-American political organizing and its sway in Washington. She explores why Cuban Americans trend Republican, the role of anti-communism in U.S. policy toward Cuba and Venezuela, and how migration waves and immigration laws shape Miami’s power.
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Western Hemisphere Ambitions
- Jane Coaston connects U.S. strikes, seizures, and captures into a coherent hemisphere-control policy by the Trump administration.
- She highlights Marco Rubio and Pete Higgseth as central figures executing that strategy.
Miami's Long Game In Politics
- Patricia Mazzei traces Miami's political power to decades of organized efforts to elect Cuban-Americans to influence Cuba policy.
- She notes Cuban-Americans' unusual Republican alignment compared with other Hispanic groups.
Recruitment Over Ideology
- Patricia Mazzei explains Republicans recruited Cuban voters by offering political opportunity and anti-communist rhetoric.
- Campaigns used Reagan-era appeals and promises of office to shift Cuban voters rightward.