Former Vice President Joe Biden announced 25 new endorsements from Puerto Rico on Thursday, including former Gov. Alejandro García Padilla.
Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign calls the endorsements “the largest bipartisan slate of Puerto Rican endorsements in a primary election” and said they build on the support Biden has already received from Puerto Rican elected officials in Florida including state Rep. Amy Mercado, D-Orlando, and state Sen. Vic Torres, D-Kissimmee.
The officials include members of the island’s Popular Democratic Party and New Progressive Party who affiliate with Democrats nationally.
The Puerto Rican population in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties is considered key to winning the important I-4 corridor. And in 2018, the number of Puerto Ricans eligible to vote in Florida began to equal that of the politically powerful Cuban-American population, according to a Pew Research Center report.
“Puerto Rico will play a defining role in the 2020 nominating contest,” the campaign said in a statement. “With 59 delegates in play, the Vice President’s strong show of support in Puerto Rico highlights not only the growing enthusiasm and excitement behind his policy, but the extreme threat that Donald Trump poses to the future of the island.”
Besides Padilla, other endorsements include former Sen. Zoé Laboy Alvarado, currently the chief of staff to Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced; Puerto Rican Sens. Carmelo Ríos Santiago and José Nadal Power; Ponce Mayor María “Mayita” Meléndez Altieri; San Lorenzo Mayor José Román Abreu; Guayanilla Mayor Nelson Torres Yordán; and Puerto Rico Reps. Rafael “Tatito” Hernández Montañez; Carlos A. Bianchi Angleró, José Aníbal Díaz Collazo, Luis “Narmito” Ortiz Lugo, José “Conny” Varela Fernández, Javier Aponte Dalmau, José “Che” Pérez Cordero, and Angel Matos García.
In addition, Former U.S. Ambassador to Chile Gabriel Guerra-Mondragón, former Puerto Rico Sen. Roberto Prats Palerm, Federation of Puerto Rico College Democrats of America President José Roldán Villanueva and seven current candidates have signed on to endorse the former vice president.
Padilla, Alvarado, Ríos Santiago, and Hernández Montañez will also serve as co-chairs of the Biden campaign’s Puerto Rico for Biden Leadership Committee.
Biden has held a steady lead over his Democratic rivals in most Florida polls, including the most recent major poll from New York Times/Siena in October that gave Biden 27% for an eight-point advantage over U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and a 14-point lead over U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont.
Biden has made two appearances in Central Florida for fundraisers, in Heathrow in May and in Windermere in October.
