Puerto Rico’s collapsing economy could win the election for Hillary Clinton
Today Vox published an insightful and detailed look at how actions from a Republican Congress twenty years ago, might affect the result of the current presidential election. Specifically, the elimination of the fabled Section 936 from the IRS code, which ultimately greatly contributed to the current economic crisis in Puerto Rico, can be seen as also causing the wave of Puerto Ricans moving to Florida. These Puerto Ricans, can hand Clinton the state, and with it, the election.
The outsize importance of Florida’s Puerto Ricans to Hillary Clinton’s election hopes is a lesson in the ripple effects that a single demographic group can create in a single state. But it’s also a delicious historical irony.
The rise of the Puerto Rican vote in Florida is the result of a chain of events stretching back 20 years, when Congress closed a Puerto Rico-specific tax loophole. That chain of events ultimately led hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans to leave the island for the mainland — and Florida in particular.
In 1996, Congressional Republicans shut out Puerto Ricans. In 2016, Puerto Ricans might finally get their revenge by securing the White House for a Democrat.
While both parties on the mainland are competing for this new voting group, Vox lays out a compelling case for the expectation that Clinton will win this vote. A must read to understand the dynamics of the Sunshine State come Tuesday.
