Florida Democrats try to flip the script on ‘socialism’ attacks with Venezuela

Florida Democrats are aggressively challenging Venezuela’s tainted election, as they try to regain support from Hispanic voters after getting labeled by Republicans as "socialists" and "communists" over several election cycles.

While Republicans warn that the U.S. could become like Venezuela if voters were to elect a “California socialist” as president, Democrats are increasingly likening former President Donald Trump to autocratic Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The two men shared “disturbing parallels,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.). “Both men,” she said, “have tried to overturn the will of their people and resorted to political violence to obtain their unsavory goal.” Democratic Senate candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell said it was important to denounce both the “rise of right-wing authoritarianism” and “socialist left-wing dictatorships” because “it is coming right here to the United States if we don’t stop it.”

It’s not clear whether the messaging will work. Over 210,000 people of Venezuelan descent live in Florida and share similar diaspora experiences of Cuban Americans, many of whom carry generational trauma from living and fleeing left-wing authoritarianism. In recent cycles, both communities have shifted to become more Republican.

Democrats already face a challenging balancing act when their own forceful rhetoric clashes with the Biden administration’s more cautious posture. Democratic officials previously pressed the White House to reimpose oil sanctions on Venezuela sooner, after the administration lifted them in 2023 in exchange for holding freer elections, which Maduro reneged on.

Many were also outraged when the Biden administration let Cuban officials tour Miami International Airport, though it apparently wasn’t unusual. The president also lifted some of Trump’s sanctions on Cuba, though he didn’t go as far as former President Barack Obama.

After Venezuela’s election, Florida Democrats quickly recognized opposition candidate Edmundo González as the rightful winner, and Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava urged the State Department to implement the strongest sanctions possible. Maduro hasn’t produced the voting results the U.S. demanded and Venezuela’s attorney general — an ally of Maduro — is investigating opposition leaders María Corina Machado and González for alleged "incitement to insurrection.”

Florida Democrats acknowledge that diplomacy takes time and credit the Biden administration for the Venezuelan election happening at all, and warn that mishandling the situation could lead to more mass migration and put the lives of protesters in Venezuela in danger. The Biden administration is withholding recognizing González as president-elect for now — despite acknowledging he won — and the Miami Herald suggested it may be because of ongoing diplomatic efforts with other countries.

Republicans see it differently. They’re calling out Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden for what they see as caving to dictatorships and winding up in the exact situation they warned about. GOP Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart accused the Biden White House of “constantly minimizing the damage that dictatorships in this hemisphere do” and of “looking at ways of helping them and appeasing them and throwing them lifesavers.”

Trump on Monday said in an interview with a livestreamer that Venezuela was being run by a dictator. But he waited days before initially weighing in on the election, when he blamed Harris for the oil sanctions deal.

As president, Trump didn’t fully give in to many pressures from fellow Republicans, including their urging to take stronger actions to support the opposition movement. Still, he was overall seen by many in the exile community as taking a tough stance that energized Hispanic voters in Florida.

Evelyn Pérez-Verdía — the founder of We Are Más, and an expert on working with Hispanic communities — said the White House had done its job on Venezuela policy. But she urged Harris as a presidential candidate to denounce the dictatorship the way she’s seen Republicans, such as Rep. María Elvira Salazar of Miami, do and “reject authoritarians from the left or right.”

“They think she is ‘wishy-washy’ about the issue because they believe she is genuinely more left-wing than Bernie Sanders,” Pérez-Verdía said of how Hispanic voters in Florida view Harris, due to content shared in private WhatsApp channels painting her that way. “She needs to rip that perception off like a Band-Aid.”

Mia McCarthy contributed to this report. This story first appeared in Florida Playbook. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.