Pence courts Florida Latinos from the pulpit. 'Have faith in this president'

Jan. 17--KISSIMMEE -- When it comes to courting Hispanic voters, Vice President Mike Pence might seem an unlikely candidate to serve as President Donald Trump's top liaison. But while he isn't bilingual, the deeply religious, born-again Pence speaks a language that matters: religion.

And so, wearing his faith on his tailored sleeve, Pence stood inside a Spanish-language church outside of Orlando on Thursday and gave a speech that book-ended talk of jobs, immigration, and military might with calls for those "who bow the head and bend the knee" to deliver another four years in office to Trump.

"This president has stood up for jobs and opportunities but also stood up for the values and faith and freedom of people in the Latino community like no one else," Pence said from the fabric-draped stage of Nación de Fe in Kissimmee. "And we've stood for religious freedom at home and all across the world."

With Trump hoping to chip away at Democrats' strong advantage among Hispanic voters, the president's campaign is using religion as a wedge in the key swing state of Florida.

Studies suggest Hispanic voters are more likely than the average American to identify as liberal, but they're also more likely to claim religious affiliation, particularly if they immigrated to the U.S. According to Pew Research, roughly half of Hispanic voters are also opposed to abortion, a topic that Trump and Pence have hit repeatedly as Democrats advocate for women's reproductive rights.

"Without apology, I stand alongside a president who stands for the sanctity of human life," said Pence, doing his best to stir the crowd packed into an intimate sanctuary. "President Donald Trump is the most pro-life president in American history."

Pence's appearance was at times somewhat awkward for a Latino-themed event in a community expanding with Puerto Rican transplants. He repeatedly mispronounced U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart's last name after the Cuban-American Republican from Miami introduced him. And one person in the crowd wondered aloud when the pre-event music would change from old pop hits to merengue.

But Pence's speech, two weeks after Trump talked up his devotion to Christianity in a Kendall megachurch, returned repeatedly to faith and conservative values. He also announced that the president had signed a disaster declaration that will open up more relief to Puerto Rico following an earthquake and aftershocks that have rattled the island.

Pastor Rafael Mojica, who goes by the title of apostle, said Pence's devotion is well-known at Mojica's Kissimmee church.

"He's a man who has openly said he's a Christian. He talks about his biblical principles. He talks about his faith," Mojica said.

Mojica said he happily agreed to host Pence at his church after receiving a request from the Trump campaign. Mojica said he would never interfere with his parishioners' political views but supports "anything that is in agreement with the principles and values of the Bible."

"I can't preach about a Jesus who loves human beings ... and vote for people who support abortion," Mojica said during a Wednesday interview.

Though Pence's appearance drew an audience that was neither entirely Hispanic or Christian, longtime church members such as Christian and Veruchka De La Torre, who called Mojica their "spiritual father," showed up to see the vice president.

"Many times we vote for the wrong things," said 38-year-old Christian De La Torre, who sat next to his wife on their "date night." To the couple, who run a home cleaning business they established after coming to Florida from Puerto Rico eight years ago, Thursday's event was about showing support and learning more about the "values and principles" that Pence represented -- namely, his position on abortion.

"It's something that's needed because many times after we vote, we regret it because we vote for a party or someone that doesn't represent the values of the Christian community," De La Torre said. "This time we've taken up the task in truly knowing the parties and knowing exactly what they're based on."

Trump's own religiosity is questionable. He is twice divorced, has been accused of sexual misbehavior by multiple women, and has been criticized by Christians for taking the Lord's name in vain during his rallies. Before Trump was pro-life, he was pro choice. In December, the magazine Christianity Today called him "grossly immoral" in an editorial calling for his removal from office.

The president also remains unpopular among Hispanic voters, and especially so among Puerto Ricans, who as American citizens are able to register to vote in U.S. presidential elections as long as they live in the 50 states. Exit polls showed Trump winning about 29% of the Hispanic vote in 2016, but the president's support among Puerto Ricans dipped into the teens after his administration was slow to respond to the devastation wrought on the island in 2017 by Hurricane Maria.

But with Pence as a spokesman, the Trump campaign showed Thursday that it is trying to build momentum even among Puerto Ricans by sending the vice president into one of the largest Boricua communities outside the island. Mojica estimated that 93% of his congregation, which on some Sundays can reach 600 people, is Puerto Rican.

While there is almost no scenario in which Trump wins a majority of the 32 million Latinos eligible to participate in the 2020 election, the president's advisors believe he can win a greater share than in 2016. His courtship of Latinos aims to shift the margins enough to matter in some swing states such as Florida, where elections are tight and 17% of the electorate is Hispanic.

Last June, Trump picked Miami as the location to roll out his Latinos for Trump campaign, tapping the state's Cuban-American lieutenant governor, Jeanette Nuñez, to serve as co-chairwoman and placing several pastors on an advisory board.

And only two weeks ago, Trump chose an Apostolic megachurch in the Miami suburbs as the backdrop for his campaign roll-out of Evangelicals for Trump -- a response to the criticism from Christianity Today. During that rally, which drew a mostly Hispanic crowd of thousands to El Rey Jesus in Kendall, Trump declared that "in America, we don't worship government. We worship God."

He also promised during the Miami event to bolster prayer in schools, an action he took in Washington on Thursday, on National Religious Freedom Day. Trump warned states that they would risk losing federal funding if they didn't enforce the constitutionally protected right of individual students and teachers to express their religious views in school.

Back in Kissimmee, the Florida Democratic Party hoped to remind Central Florida's Puerto Rican community of Trump's response to Maria by erecting a billboard along a main route from Orlando to Kissimmee showing a post-Maria moment that has come to define the Trump administration's beleaguered response to the storm: Trump casually tossing paper towels to the hurricane's victims gathered inside a Puerto Rico church.

Episcopalian Rev. Jose Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican pastor from a different Orlando-area church, said that while the president's campaign prioritizes abortion as an issue likely to win over Hispanics and religious communities, "they hide the fact that Puerto Rico hasn't gotten aid, they hide the fact that we don't get equal treatment."

"Let me remind you that paper towel incident happened inside a church," said Rodriguez, who works with Puerto Ricans who have settled in Central Florida. "It happened with the party targeting the very same group of Christians that they are targeting in Kissimmee."

But Trump and Pence are hoping that their message will resonate enough to matter in Florida, which Trump likely needs to win to be reelected.

"We're going to win another great victory in Florida in 2020," Pence said. "Have faith in this president."

___

(c)2020 Miami Herald

Visit Miami Herald at www.miamiherald.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.