Jennifer Lopez headlines Get Out the Vote concert in Miami for Clinton
MIAMI -- Two Latin music icons rallied voters for Hillary Clinton on Saturday in South Florida's Democratic stronghold as the candidate pressed for more support among the state's Hispanic voters.
Jennifer Lopez headlined the concert at Bayfront Park, saying, “This election is one of the most important in our lifetime.”
“Florida, home to one of my favorite cities, Miami, and millions of Latinos is a pivotal state in this election. It’s time to unify, support and vote for the only choice that makes sense not only for women or for Latinos, but for all Americans,” Lopez said.
For the event, Lopez was joined by her ex-husband, Marc Anthony, named Latin Grammy person of the year.
“Latinos, I don’t have to go over how important the moment in history is if you are Latinos,” Anthony told the crowd of 7,498.
“Listen to me, this is a very special time in history," he said. "After the establishment sees how we show up, how we vote, they will never mess with us again.”
Thousands braved the rain, which poured on and off throughout the night, to attend the concert held to benefit Clinton on the first weekend day of early voting.
“I just tell you. It rained, and everybody’s here. And the performances were amazing,” Clinton said near the end of the concert, before appealing to the crowd to help her beat Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“There are just 10 days left in the most important election of our lives," she told the crowd. "It might be a little easy to forget with all the fun and excitement and joy that you saw up on the stage today, Donald Trump is out there stoking fear, disgracing our democracy and insulting one group of Americans after another. Well let me ask you this: Are we going to let Donald Trump get away with that?”
As the rain continued, Clinton made her push.
Elections 2016 | Naples Daily News
“The rain has come back, so here’s what I’m asking all of you to do: 16.5 million people have already voted, more than 3 million right here in Florida. Let’s keep this momentum going. We just heard Jennifer perform, ‘Let’s Get Loud.’ Well, I say, 'let’s get loud at the voting booth!'”
Rep. Patrick Murphy traveled from Daytona to Miami on Saturday, campaigning alongside Clinton. Murphy has been struggling with name recognition in his own Senate race with incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio after originally promised ad buys were yanked from the Democratic Senate Committee and an outside super PAC.
Murphy said he was glad to see Clinton in his state.
“I’m just grateful that Secretary Clinton is here campaigning, that she’s helping down-ballot races out, helping get the vote out because that’s what’s so important," Murphy said. "At this point, it’s really about turnout, getting people fired up, who shows up to vote will determine this election.”
Murphy said he was glad he loaned himself $1 million, as Politico reported Thursday, because he was able to launch an ad targeted to the Latino voter.
“You know, we’re grateful for an ad that President Obama cut in Spanish for us, which is really going to help with everybody, but certainly here in Miami and the I-4 corridor to make sure that the Hispanic community here in Florida knows who I am,” Murphy said.
As of Saturday, 3.3 million Floridians had voted. In 2012, 8.4 million voted with a 72 percent turnout across the state. There has been an increase in nearly 800,000 voters since then. Assuming voter turnout remains the same for this year’s election, that means, about 35 percent of Floridians have cast their vote so far. Forty-one percent of Republicans have cast their ballots and 40 percent of Democrats have cast theirs.
Democrats normally outvote Republicans by large margins in early voting. On the other side, Republicans do better in casting absentee ballot votes by mail. After the classic “souls to the polls” push on Sunday, it will be more clear whether Democrats will overtake Republicans in order to mitigate Election Day, where Republicans also do well.
——
Correction (Oct. 30, 2016): The original story said Jennifer Lopez headlined the concert at Biscayne Park. It is not Biscayne Park. It is at Bayfront Park.