The 2012 election will be remembered for revealing major demographic shifts among voters. That change was very apparent in the swing state of Florida.
NPR White House correspondent Ari Shapiro covered Mitt Romney during the campaign and made numerous trips to Florida.
He was back in Florida on Thursday to speak to the Lifelong Learning Center at USF Sarasota-Manatee. Shapiro said two-thirds of Hispanic voters cast a ballot for Barack Obama in 2008, and that percentage actually grew to three-fourths in the 2012 election.
“The Miami polling firm Sergio Bendixon says Obama even almost won a majority of Cuban voters in Florida, which is one of the staunchest Republican groups historically speaking,” Shapiro said. “That seems to be changing. So turnout was a big part of it, but there are also interesting changes in demography and who is voting for which party.”
Shapiro talked with WUSF’s Bobbie O’Brien about the 2012 campaign and said it will be the last time a major party’s presidential ticket will include two white men. Instead, Shapiro expects to see Latino or other minorities and female candidates included on the tickets of both major parties.
