A comedian’s controversial “floating trash” joke about Puerto Rico at a rally for Republican President-elect Donald Trump in the final days before the election may not have had the negative effect on Trump’s support among Puerto Ricans that critics expected it would. have.

Despite the backlash from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s joke at a Trump rally in New York City about a week before Tuesday, Trump still won several Florida counties with the state’s largest concentration of Puerto Ricans, which it lost them in both 2020 and 2016.

Osceola County, home to the largest concentration of Puerto Ricans in the Sunshine State based on census data, voted for Trump late Tuesday after voting for the Democrat in the last two elections in which Trump ran. Meanwhile, Miami-Dade and Hillsborough counties, two other districts with significant Puerto Rican populations that Trump lost in 2020 and 2016, also went for Trump this time.

A demonstrator with a Puerto Rican flag attends a rally to protest Donald Trump on June 18, 2019 in Orlando, Florida.

Not only did Trump garner significant support in Florida counties with large Puerto Rican populations, the US territory also elected a candidate who is a Trump ally as its next governor.

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Questions about how Trump would fare with the Latino electorate began swirling before Election Day after Hinchcliffe created a firestorm after appearing at a Trump rally and telling a joke that sounded like Puerto Rico to “a floating pile of rubbish”.

“Comments like these motivate us. Latinos are not a group to be underestimated, especially when it comes to our impact at the polls,” Ana Valdez, CEO of a Latino nonprofit organization, said Newsweek before Tuesday’s election. “We expect this weekend’s comments to drive even more voter turnout in Latino-heavy states like Arizona, Nevada and Florida.”

Then-President Trump visits the Chapel of the Chivalry in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, on Oct. 3, 2017, nearly two weeks after Hurricane Maria made landfall in the region.

Meanwhile, an unidentified female voter of Puerto Rican descent spoke to CNN on Election Day and was asked how Hinchcliffe’s joke might have affected who she chose to support. The voter said he didn’t like the joke, but concluded that “at the end of the day” he wanted to vote for whoever would give him “a better life in the future” regardless of such comments. The voter added that this was a decision she and her family came together with.

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In addition, other Puerto Rican voters in Pennsylvania said Fox News that Hinchcliffe’s joke didn’t affect their support for Trump either, even though insisted one of their state MPs would have an “undeniable impact” on the election results.

Protesters demand the resignation of Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced during a demonstration, January 20, 2020, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

In addition to Trump’s gains among Puerto Rican voters in this election, Puerto Rico’s four-way gubernatorial race ended with a victory by ally of Trump Jenniffer González-Colón, who was previously a non-voting delegate to Congress for the territory.

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Hispanics overall were much less supportive of Democratic Vice President Harris, the 2024 presidential nominee, than the president. Biden in 2020. While a majority of Hispanic voters supported Harris over Trump, the vice president’s eight-point margin of victory Tuesday paled in comparison to Biden’s 33-point margin of victory over Trump in 2020.