Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) believes former President Donald Trump has attracted a more diverse coalition to the Republican Party, even as the GOP continues to lose support from white women.
Gaetz touted Trump’s decisive victory in the Iowa caucuses on Monday, but also used stereotypical names for different racial and ethnic groups to describe how the former president has garnered support among different groups while speaking on Newsmax’s Carl Higbie Frontline on Wednesday.
He said that for every “Karen” — a common name for a white woman — that Trump loses, he picks up a “Julio” — a common name for a Hispanic man — and a “Jamal” — a common name for a black man — to his base.
“This is the blue-collar realignment of the Republican Party, and what I can tell you is for every Karen we lose, there’s a Julio and a Jamal ready to sign up for the MAGA movement,” Gaetz said. “And that bodes well for our ability to be more diverse and to be more durable as we head into not only the rest of the primary contest, but also the general election.”
He also argued that supporters of Trump are resilient, citing the extreme weather conditions in the Hawkeye State on Monday.
“There is a relentlessness and a persistence in the Trump campaign that I think really emerges out of the candidate himself,” Gaetz said. “In Iowa, this victory was so huge, and really it was a testament to the resiliency of the Trump voter because you had the worst conditions possible, historically challenging weather and ice, and these folks came out and voted overwhelmingly for the president. I met with a lot of those folks.”
Head-to-head polling between Trump and President Joe Biden has shown Trump picking up more support among Latino, black, and minority voters when compared to his election loss to Biden in 2020.
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A USA Today-Suffolk University Poll released earlier this month showed Trump ahead of Biden with Hispanic voters 39%-34%, after Biden won the group 65%-32% in 2020, while Biden only leads the black vote with 63% compared to the 87% he won in 2020. The poll from earlier this month continues a string of surveys that have shown Trump cutting into Biden’s dominance of minority voters.
While Trump has improved with minority voters, he has consistently lost white suburban voters, specifically women, including in the 2020 election. The Pew Research Center found that Trump won the white suburban vote by 4% in 2020, compared to a win by 16% in 2016. Depressed support from white suburban voters has been blamed for several Republican losses in the Trump era for the GOP.