‘We have to vote now’: How a Puerto Rico joke at a Trump rally may change the race in a key swing state

Latinos in Pennsylvania offended by comedian’s ‘floating island of garbage’ comments are now galvanised to vote for Kamala Harris

Puerto Rican migrant Brenda Marrero has not voted in the presidential elections once since moving to Pennsylvania almost a decade ago.
The 54-year-old could not really put her finger on why she had opted out of the constitutional right – she just hadn’t felt the need to vote.
That was, until, a racist joke about her homeland became the centre of one of the biggest scandals in this presidential election.
Ms Marrero had been so incensed by the Trump rally’s warm-up act referring to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage” that she has been inspired to head to the polls for the first time.
She has lived in the US for nine years but has sat out of the past two elections, despite thinking Trump was “like a dictator” from the start of his political career.
On Nov 5 she plans to break her history of absenteeism and cast a ballot for Kamala Harris because comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s comments made her so “angry and sad,” the former healthcare worker told The Telegraph from her porch in Allentown.
Allentown, Pennsylvania, has become mythologised as a place  where the American dream could become reality for swathes of migrants.
With a Latino population of more than 40 per cent, it is also the subject of a popular Billy Joel song lamenting the decline of the area’s once thriving steel and textile industry.
The now-majority Latino city, where Hispanics flocked in the 1980s and 90s to help staff its many factories, and later stayed following their closure after laying down roots, has become ground zero in the battle for Latino votes this election.
As of 2020, there were more than 68,000 people who identified themselves as Hispanic, roughly 54 per cent of the city’s population, according to census data.
Naturally, tensions are high following the fallout from Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally where the ill-fated joke was made.
“It was an insult to hard-working Latino people… it wasn’t funny, it wasn’t accepted and no apology would be accepted now,” Ms Marrero said.
Jose Diaz, 59, said he had noticed similar furious reactions rippling throughout the Puerto Rican community.
The military veteran said news of the joke “spread like wildfire” throughout the neighbourhood after Sunday night’s rally.
“A lot of the older people here were saying: ‘We have to come out and vote now,” said Mr Diaz, who had already planned to vote for Kamala Harris.
Speaking from outside a local Puerto Rican shop, he said more people in the community were now “alert” and had made plans to cast their ballot instead of sitting out the vote.
“My neighbours said the same thing. I asked them: ‘Are you guys going to vote?’ they said ‘Oh yeah, we’re going to vote now.’”
Ms Marrero’s decision comes after a slew of global Puerto Rican stars including Bad Bunny, the most streamed artist on Spotify between 2020 and 2022, Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin denounced the comments and endorsed Ms Harris.
Reggaeton star Nicky Jam revoked “any support” for Trump having appearing at his rally in Las Vegas in September.
Pennsylvania has a Puerto Rican population of nearly 500,000 people, according to census data. In a state where Joe Biden won by around 80,000 in 2020, the demographic is a powerful and potentially pivotal voting bloc.
The competition for every vote in this state is made clear on the drive from Allentown to Bethlehem, where placards and signs for each candidate vye for voters’ attention.
On one turning, a huge billboard reads “fascist” in black and white alongside a picture of Trump, and wedged into the grass nearby are several signs saying “Trump safety, Kamala crime”.
Voters like Ms Marrero who have been mobilised by the racist joke could potentially move the needle in a crucial battleground state during what is expected to be one of the tightest elections in US history.
In the wake of the furore, Trump held a rally in Allentown as he attempted to placate Hispanic voters, where he insisted “nobody loves the Hispanic community and Puerto Rico community like I do”.
He didn’t address the controversial remarks, but later tried to distance himself from the comments, saying he had “no idea” who Hinchcliffe was. His campaign said the joke “does not reflect the views of president Trump or the campaign”.
The following day,  superstar Lin-Manuel Miranda, himself of Puerto Rican origin, appeared with Maya Harris, the vice-president’s sister, in front of a crowd of some 150 people gathered at an Early Vote Party at the Puerto Rican Beneficial Society in Bethlehem, around six miles from Allentown.
“I’m here because everything’s at stake in this election,” Miranda told the crowd.
Referring to several other controversial jokes Hinchliffe had made, he said that the Republicans are “equal opportunity offenders… the only joke they distance themselves from officially as the Trump campaign was the Puerto Rico joke.
“Why? Because y’all have power…. They’re terrified of your vote… that you’re going to turn the page and finally end this nightmarish chapter division in this country, you have power to do it, and that’s why they distanced themselves from that joke, no others.”
Hispanics have traditionally voted Democratic, but the level of support for blue candidates has been slowly eroding.
In 2020, Trump’s popularity surged among Hispanics. While Mr Biden won Latino voters by 21 points, 59 per cent to 38 per cent, down from Hillary Clinton’s 38-point advantage in 2016.
While it is a US territory and Puerto Ricans are American citizens, those living on the island are unable to vote in the election.
But Puerto Rico’s more than three million residents can help influence and put pressure on their loved ones living in the US.
Addressing the crowd before Miranda, the vice-president’s sister accused Trump of “hateful rhetoric, a continued pattern of disrespecting Puerto Ricans and disparaging Puerto Rico”.
Flanked by two dangling zombies, she added: “When someone does not see your humanity, he will not fight for your opportunity. Donald Trump is not going to fight for you or your family. He’s not looking out for Puerto Ricans, for Latinos, for Pennsylvania. He’s looking out for himself.”
The audience waved “Latinos for Harris” signs and gave Ms Harris a rapturous applause, before queuing for photographs lit by an aide holding up a circular light.
The Democratic candidate has been criticised for avoiding interviews and press conferences throughout her campaign, and it seems her sister has followed suit after she twice declined to speak to The Telegraph, with her team saying she was not “doing media” that evening.
Among those watching Ms Harris was Norverto Dominguez, 57, who said Hinchliffe’s comments had been a “gift” while canvassing in Allentown.
“Everyone’s very, very, very p—-d off… The thing is that it’s a double insult, because you’re insulting our community, and then you’re coming to our community and saying, ‘Can we have your votes?’”
The precinct captain with the local Democratic party in Allentown said he thinks Hinchliffe’s comments could move the needle for Ms Harris.
“We’re having a conversation on the phones or having the conversation on the doors, in the streets, in the kitchen, on the porches. Yeah, it’s starting to have an effect… I think it’s making a difference. It was a gift.”
Speaking as she held up a Latinos for Harris sign, Joyce Zambrana, 51, said Mr Hinchcliffe’s comments might have cost him her husband’s vote.
Although she is a lifelong Democrat, her husband Jack, who is also Puerto Rican, has voted for Trump in the previous two elections.
But he is considering withholding his vote for the Republican candidate in light of the racist joke.
Ms Zambrana, who works in a local school, said the distasteful comment “offended a lot of people”.
He said: “It was the wrong place at the wrong time. I understand he was a comedian. I get it, you know, we make, you know, Mexican jokes, but it was the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Christopher Galdieri, professor of politics at Saint Anselm, said the Latino vote in critical swing states could have significant consequences on election day.
“The danger for Trump from those comments is that it activates and galvanises those folks, makes them think of themselves in terms of their Puerto Rican identity in a way that they might not have otherwise”, he told The Telegraph.
“It’s sort of activating that identity and getting folks to vote on the basis of that, as opposed to nostalgia for the world before Covid, or frustration with grocery prices and that sort of thing.
“If this election is as close as all the polls indicate, then, yeah, a really charged up galvanised group really could make a big difference.”
As the group in Bethlehem filtered out of the Puerto Rican centre, buoyant from the celebrity visit, the feeling of optimism among the crowd of Democrats was palpable.
But will a visceral response to a racist joke be enough to translate to an election day victory?