{"id":442410,"date":"2026-10-30T10:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T10:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/442410\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T10:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T10:46:11","slug":"florida-gop-hialeah-event-emphasizes-anti-socialist-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/442410\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida GOP Hialeah event emphasizes anti\u2011socialist message"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"U.S.<\/p>\n

U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody greets supporters after speaking during a campaign rally at the Hialeah Park Casino on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, in Hialeah, Fla. Moody is running to retain her seat.<\/p>\n

Photo by Matias J. Ocner<\/p>\n

mocner@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n

With only five days remaining before the November election, top candidates on the Republican ticket rallied Thursday night in Hialeah for a final push to woo Cuban-American voters. Against the backdrop of recent polls showing tight margins across the ballot, the GOP candidates issued a call to action to stop the Democratic Party, arguing it has been overtaken by socialism and asserting that Republicans are key to halting its progress in Florida.<\/p>\n

Byron Donalds, the three-term Naples Republican congressman running against Democrat David Jolly to keep Florida under Republican control, told the packed room of Hispanic voters Thursday that Hialeah was the place where \u201cwe stand up to communists, we stand up to socialists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn five days, we are going to win. We are going to keep Florida free, and we are going to keep Florida Red,\u201d he said at the Hialeah Park Casino.<\/p>\n

\"Attendees Attendees listen to Byron Donalds speak during a campaign rally at the Hialeah Park Casino on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, in Hialeah, Fla. Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

Cuban-American voters are a vital base for the Florida Republican Party and have helped shift Miami-Dade County toward the GOP in recent elections. Polling suggests a close gubernatorial race, but a recent Florida International University poll of Cuban voters shows Donalds leading Jolly 60% to 24% among those who have already decided whom to support for governor.<\/p>\n

To win over Hispanic voters who fled regimes in countries like Cuba and Venezuela, the GOP has tapped into fears of a socialist takeover, fueled by the rise of increasingly progressive Democratic candidates.<\/p>\n

The event was part of the Donalds\u2019 50-stop \u201cDefending the Florida Dream\u201d bus tour across 38 counties, which included his running mate, Hialeah native Bryan Avila; U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody; Attorney General James Uthmeier; Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia; and Donald Trump Jr.<\/p>\n

\"A A supporter reacts while attending a Byron Donalds campaign rally at the Hialeah Park Casino on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, in Hialeah, Fla. Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

The primary target of criticism for the evening was Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Angie Nixon, a progressive community organizer whose grassroots-style campaign victory in the Democratic primary sent shockwaves through Florida politics. Her association with the Democratic Socialists of America has been a point of contention within the Florida Democratic Party and a point of attack for the GOP.<\/p>\n

Moody, the Republican incumbent, who was appointed to her role by Gov. Ron DeSantis after Marco Rubio became Secretary of State, on Thursday accused Nixon of being a pawn of communist ideology. She evoked a recent CBS News interview in which Nixon was asked whether the Cuban government was a dictatorship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is what people have told me,\u201d Nixon responded. \u201cI have never been to Cuba, and so I will have to take their word for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nixon had called Cuba a dictatorship<\/a> prior to the interview, and has repeated that position since. But Moody said Thursday that Nixon \u201chas amnesia about whether Cuba is a dictatorship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Supporters Supporters attend a Byron Donalds campaign rally at the Hialeah Park Casino on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, in Hialeah, Fla. Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

\u201cOur foreign adversaries are laughing right now that a major party, the Democratic Party, has nominated people for their party nomination that are members of a socialist organization. That is like unleashing termites in the House of America,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Polling indicates a competitive race between the two candidates. The most recent survey by St. Pete Polls<\/a> places Moody ahead of Nixon 49% to 45%, with Nixon leading among Hispanic voters. However, the FIU poll of Cuban voters \u2014 who as a group are more conservative than other Hispanic voters \u2014 shows Moody leading Nixon 51% to 26% among those who have decided on a candidate.<\/p>\n

\"Donald Donald Trump Jr. speaks during a campaign rally at the Hialeah Park Casino on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, in Hialeah, Fla. Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

The special guest for the night was Donald Trump Jr., draped in a navy blue suit. He spoke about his mom, Ivana Trump, an immigrant from the Czech Republic who fled communism in the 70s. He said he understood what it was like to flee communism from her experience and that of his grandparents. He said, \u201cit\u2019s not so sexy\u201d as Democratic Socialists like U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders make it seem.<\/p>\n

He encouraged voters to vote red down the ballot and talk to their friends to make sure they \u201cunderstand what\u2019s at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cByron\u2019s become a great friend over the years because he was a true defender of my father, of ourselves, of our family,\u201d he said. \u201cBut more importantly than all of that, for the freedoms that we deserve in America, and that\u2019s why he needs to be the next governor of the great state of Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Erika Erika Donalds speak during a campaign rally for her husband, Byron Donalds, at the Hialeah Park Casino on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, in Hialeah, Fla. Byron is running for Florida Governor. Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

Donalds, who is on the verge of making history as Florida\u2019s first Black governor, and a Republican at that, asked an applauding crowd, \u201cAre you with us to keep Florida free? Are you with us to keep Florida Red?\u201d<\/p>\n

To which more than 100 supporters, on their feet, yelled an enthusiastic \u201cYeah!\u201d<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Churchill Ndonwie<\/a><\/p>\n

Miami Herald<\/p>\n

Churchill Ndonwie is an Esserman Investigative Fellow at The Miami Herald. Before this role, he was an Ida B. Wells investigative intern with the New York Times, where he examined the hidden pipeline of undocumented workers into U.S. factories and the victimization those individuals experienced. He was also a Global Migrations Fellow at Columbia Journalism Investigations, where he worked with Reuters to investigate and reveal the smuggling routes through commercial and charter airlines used to facilitate illegal immigration to the U.S. Southern border from India and West Africa.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody greets supporters after speaking during a campaign rally at the Hialeah Park Casino on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-442410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}