Ricky Martin said it is “super sad” to see fellow Latinos supporting President Trump with the 2020 election just days away. The “Livin’ La Vida Loca” singer made the comments in an upcoming episode of the Variety and iHeart podcast, “The Big Ticket.”
Martin, who stumped for Biden in Florida last month, said Latinos for Trump, a coalition of ardent Latino voters trying to get Mr. Trump re-elected, is “really scary.”
“It is super sad,” he said. “I think there’s a lot Hispanics that will vote him out. Trumpeters make a lot of noise and it’s scary to see their enthusiasm. But us, we’re doing what’s right, the right way and we’ll see what happens in November. I’m very optimistic.”
A recent national poll suggests 65 percent of Latinos will for vote for Democratic nominee Joe Biden or lean toward him. According to a state poll by Telemundo released Thursday, Biden holds a narrow lead over Mr. Trump among Hispanic voters in Florida. The poll shows Biden has strong support among Puerto Ricans, but Cuban-Americans, a key voting bloc in the state, heavily favor Mr. Trump by more than 50 percentage points.
As of Thursday, nearly 80,000,000 votes have already been cast in this election, according to the U.S. Elections Project.
The 48-year-old Puerto Rican singer also explained why he’s backing Biden.
“I think he is the only option we have and he is great and he has been in politics all his life,” he said. “This is the moment. We all need to get together and be loud about the course of this nation.”
“I am a Latino, gay [and] married to an Arab living in Trump’s America,” he added. “We check all the boxes.”
Martin also dismissed Puerto Rican governor Wanda Vázquez’s endorsement of Mr. Trump. Vázquez became the island’s top government official after former governor Ricardo Rosello resigned and his successor Pedro Pierluisi was removed by the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico.
“She wasn’t even elected by the people,” he said. “She’s not part of this conversation.”
A record 32 million Hispanics are projected to be eligible to vote in 2020, making up 13% of all U.S. eligible voters. That number exceeds for the first time the number of Black eligible voters in a presidential election.