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■■■ ELECTION 2020■■■

Julián Castro chose

Puerto Rico for his first cam-

paign stop. Tulsi Gabbard

visited the island to support

protesters as they called for

the island governor’s remov-

al. Amy Klobuchar stopped

by a San Juan school dam-

aged by Hurricane Maria.

Many Democratic presi-

dential candidates have vis-

ited the U.S. territory or of-

fered support on social me-

dia as the island struggles to

recover from political tur-

moil and the aftermath of a

hurricane that killed thou-

sands and displaced many

more. Puerto Rican advo-

cates say they appreciate

the attention, but they want

more.

They’re pushing candi-

dates to release comprehen-

sive policy plans to lift the is-

land out of poverty and sup-

port its people as President

Trump continues to divert

federal aid away from it.

Latino voters are ex-

pected to become the largest

minority voting bloc next

year, and Puerto Ricans

could be a force in key states

such as Florida and Ohio,

where many evacuees set-

tled. The U.S. citizens can

vote in presidential primary

elections whether they live

in the states or on the island;

those in the states can also

vote in the general election.

A candidate who wants

Puerto Rican voters to turn

out for the primary or the

general election should in-

vest in the community early,

said Daniel Ortiz, an organ-

izer in Cleveland.

“That sort of late-in-the-

game pivot to say, ‘We hear

you and your issues in the

community,’ isn’t ade-

quate,” Ortiz said. “We’re

looking for people who are

going to be in relationship

with us.”

This week marks the sec-

ond anniversary of Hurri-

cane Maria devastating the

island and displacing tens of

thousands of people. Even

before the storm hit, Puerto

Rico was struggling from a

debt crisis made worse by

lawmakers who terminated

a federal tax break that at-

tracted manufacturers to

the island.

Because of its status as a

U.S. territory, Puerto Rico

could not climb out of a cycle

of debt like a state could, and

before Maria, it had

amassed some $70 billion in

debt.

Erica Gonzalez, director

of Power 4 Puerto Rico, a co-

alition of Puerto Rican or-

ganizations across the coun-

try, hopes candidates will

remedy that, if elected. The

coalition has reached out to

campaigns with an open let-

ter, co-signed by about 60

other groups, asking each to

endorse a plan that would

include, among other things,

debt relief for the island and

more federal resources to re-

build its infrastructure and

economy.

“We are tracking what

[candidates] are saying or

not saying, and at some

point we will present that.

And the Puerto Rican elec-

torate, whether it’s in Ohio,

Pennsylvania or Florida, or

North Carolina, is going to

have a chance to take a look

at that and shop and com-

pare,” Gonzalez said. “We’re

not looking for a piecemeal

approach.”

Federico de Jesús, a sen-

ior advisor to the coalition,

pointed out that some of the

senators competing for the

Democratic nomination, in-

cluding Cory Booker of New

Jersey and Kamala Harris of

California, have supported

measures to boost relief ef-

forts for Puerto Rico. But

many candidates have yet to

release plans as part of their

2020 campaign, including

former Vice President Joe

Biden, the front-runner.

“We haven’t seen the level

of detail that we would have

expected at this time,” De

Jesús said.

Some candidates, includ-

ing Massachusetts Sen. Eliz-

abeth Warren and Vermont

Sen. Bernie Sanders, both of

whom introduced legisla-

tion post-Hurricane Maria,

have issued policies on how

they plan to help the island

recover. Warren proposes

debt relief for the island,

which advocates say is a

good starting point. Castro,

the former HUD secretary,

has yet to release a plan, but

advocates praised him for

prioritizing Puerto Rico as

his first campaign stop.

New York City Mayor Bill

de Blasio, who this month

toured a San Juan neighbor-

hood damaged by Hurricane

Maria, recently released a

comprehensive plan. That’s

a good sign that pushing

candidates to focus on

Puerto Rico is working, said

Mayra Macías, executive di-

rector of the Latino Victory

Project, which helped

launch Power 4 Puerto Rico.

“That’s really good politi-

cal leverage for Power 4

Puerto Rico to kind of call

out that some of the folks

who are vying for the Latino

vote ... have not put out their

comprehensive proposals,”

she said.

But the island has largely

been sidelined from the na-

tional stage in the 2020 elec-

tion cycle. Democratic can-

didates have not been asked

a question about Puerto

Rico at any of the three de-

bates. The first debate, in

June, was held in Florida,

where a third of eligible Lat-

ino voters in the state are

Puerto Rican, according to

the Pew Research Center.

The second debate

in July came about a week af-

ter Puerto Rican Gov. Ri-

cardo Rosselló resigned fol-

lowing widespread demon-

strations.

For two weeks, the people

on the island had marched,

chanted and danced in pro-

test after private group chat

messages revealed by a local

news organization showed

Rosselló and aides made

sexist comments about

women and joked about vic-

tims’ bodies accumulating

after Hurricane Maria.

Natalia Giraldo-Santia-

go, who helped organize

events in Houston to sup-

port the protest, said she is

disappointed that Demo-

crats aren’t prioritizing the

needs of the island and its

people while campaigning

against Trump.

“I don’t think Democrats

are really ready to fight this

negative view of Puerto Ri-

cans” that the president is

spreading, she said.

Trump, who engaged in a

public spat with the mayor

of the capital, San Juan, in

the immediate aftermath of

Hurricane Maria, has been

criticized for what many

consider as treating Puerto

Ricans as second-class citi-

zens. The Defense Depart-

ment announced this month

it was diverting $400 million

from military construction

projects in Puerto Rico to

put toward building a wall at

the southern U.S. border.

After the hurricane,

many evacuees settled

in election battleground

states, including Florida,

Ohio and Pennsylvania, ac-

cording to a 2018 report by

the Center for Puerto Rican

Studies at Hunter College in

New York. Organizers in

those states are hoping can-

didates don’t wait until the

eleventh hour to mobilize

Puerto Rican voters.

Marcos Vilar, executive

director of Alianza for Prog-

ress, in Orlando, Fla., said

some candidates have

reached out to the state’s

Puerto Rican community.

They need to, he said, if

Democrats hope to capture

Florida, which Trump won

in 2016 by 1.2 percentage

points. The state has a large

Cuban population — 1.4 mil-

lion — that has historically

voted Republican. But the

Puerto Rican population is

about 1 million, according to

the U.S. Census Bureau.

Vilar noted that South

Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete

Buttigieg asked to meet with

community leaders in Or-

lando during a visit last

month. “That’s the kind of

attention that all of the can-

didates should be giving to

our community,” Vilar said.

Puerto Ricans want more than

visits by Democratic candidates

Activists seek broader

plans to help with

hurricane recovery.

By Melissa Gomez

PUERTO RICANS protest at the governor’s mansion in San Juan on July 24.

Gov. Rosselló announced his resignation later that day. It took effect Aug. 2.

Dennis M. Rivera PichardoAssociated Press