George Soros. | AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file Democratic megadonor Soros spending big to turn out Florida Puerto Rican vote

Billionaire Democratic donor George Soros is funding an effort aimed at mobilizing central Florida's Puerto Rican voters, an increasingly sought-after slice of the electorate in a region packed with persuadable voters in the country's biggest battleground state.

Much of the work will be done through United for Progress, a new Florida political committee started in September and chaired by Marcos Vilar, a Miami-based political consultant. In October, Soros, who is among the Democrats' largest donors nationally, gave $200,000, the group’s lone contribution.


“United for Progress is educating Floridians about issues of importance to the Puerto Rican community in several jurisdictions around the state,” Vilar said in an email.

He did not respond to follow-up questions about the specifics of their operation, but a handful of consultants familiar with the effort say it will revolve around a mail program targeting specific Central Florida legislative races in seats with large numbers of Puerto Rican voters, who tend to vote Democrat.

State House District 43, for example, is represented by Democrat John Cortes and is nearly 55 percent Hispanic, a large percentage being Puerto Rican. The seat is entirely in Osceola County, which has seen a huge influx of newly arrived Puerto Ricans due to the decade-long financial crisis on the island.

In neighboring House District 48, represented by Orlando Democrat Victor Torres, more than 50 percent of eligible voters are Hispanic, most of whom are Puerto Rican.

The population of Puerto Ricans in Florida is up 110 percent since 2000, according to the Pew Research Center. The demographic dynamic has boosted the Puerto Rican community’s political clout as groups try to turn those new residents into votes.

These new residents make up nearly one-third of all eligible Hispanic voters, who represent about 15 percent of all Florida voters this election cycle. Puerto Rican voters are the state's second-largest Hispanic group behind Cuban-Americans, but are expected to be the largest by 2020.

State Sen. Darren Soto, an Orlando Democrat running for Congress, said he has not been briefed on Soros’ efforts, but that there is a push in the region to mobilize the Puerto Rican vote. If elected, he would be the first Puerto Rican to represent Florida in Washington.

“It is absolutely critical [to get them to vote],” said Soto. “My campaign is spending $100,000 or more on the canvassing and we have a rock solid vote-by-mail campaign.”

Helping with that turnout effort will be Soros' bank account. In a separate effort outside of the new $200,000, he spent $1.3 million in a successful bid to oust Orange-Osceola State Attorney Jeff Ashton, and is also involved in the campaign against Hillsborough State Attorney Mark Ober. Those electoral battles are part of Soros' national effort to reform the criminal justice system.

With a rising number of Puerto Ricans flocking to settle in Florida, it has become increasingly important for Democrats to get that new pot of ideologically aligned voters to the polls.

“There has been an uptick over the past few weeks working to get out the [Puerto Rican] vote,” said Torres, who is of Puerto Rican descent. “It’s the result of people really working hard, and the Hispanic community — the Puerto Rican community — are turning out to vote. That needs to continue.”

He said issues that loom large for the Puerto Rican community are the island government's debt crisis; federal funding for Zika, which has ravaged Puerto Rico; and criticism of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was born in New York to Puerto Rican parents and is the first Hispanic to serve on the nation's highest court.

“For the Puerto Rican community, that was an awesome nomination,” Torres said.

Sotomayor's nomination is a jab at Sen. Marco Rubio, who is currently in a re-election fight against Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy. Rubio opposed her nomination in a 2009 letter he penned to POLITICO — “Not anti-Hispanic to oppose Sotomayor” — as he began his first U.S. Senate campaign.

“Many are now attempting to brand Republicans as anti-Hispanic,” wrote Rubio, who was not yet a member of the Senate. “It should be clear, however, that our opposition to her judicial philosophy is in no way a wholesale opposition to Hispanics.”

Despite his opposition to Sotomayor, Rubio won Puerto Rico’s 2016 presidential primary with 74 percent of the vote. He also was appointed to a congressional task force set up to look at Puerto Rico’s debt crisis, but has not been welcomed by some Puerto Ricans in Florida.

He was booed offstage Sunday at Calle Orange, a street festival in Orlando catering to Puerto Ricans, according to National Public Radio. NPR reported that the boos began shortly after the Cuban-American lawmaker was introduced and grew louder as Rubio began to speak. He left after making brief remarks, according to NPR.

“I want to enjoy this day. We’re not going to talk about politics today,” said Rubio in Spanish. “Thank God for this beautiful day, and for our freedom, our democracy, our vote and our country. God bless you all, thank you very much.”