Dress me slowly… – Metro Puerto Rico

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Analyzing the results of electoral events is not an easy task, and this is even more true in Puerto Rico. Real numbers help, but we know that powerful narratives can also be constructed with numbers. Listening to the comments about the primary elections held on Sunday, June 2, it seems to me that some narratives are becoming reality that must be carefully examined in light of the reality experienced by our people.

Numbers are numbers, they give a thick dose of reality, but we all know that reality is not only numbers, but also has a high heart content. Reality is a combination of data and emotions, and in politics, emotions play a very important role. Few people go out on Sunday morning to vote by numbers, emotions drive them to do so.

In the June 2 primaries, data showed a significant drop in electoral participation. The People’s Democratic Party (PPD) had 218,900 voters turn out in the 2020 primary, while 138,243 voters turned out in the 2024 primary, a 37% drop in voters. In the New Progressive Party (NPP) primaries, 297,988 voters cast their ballots in 2020 and 296,267 in 2024. While these figures give the PNP almost the same participation rate as in 2020, it was a complete defeat for the party going into Sunday’s primary, as Pierluisi and Jennifer Gonzalez They assured people that more than 400,000 people would participate. They both hung up.

But let’s look more closely. Pedro Pierluis He received 162,345 votes. On Sunday, he received 30,000 fewer votes, 132,805 votes. This is where the politics of the heart and emotion come into play. On the one hand, I find it both fascinating and frustrating that there is a segment of society in Puerto Rico that is willing to put $7 million into the account of a candidate for governor who has the lowest approval rating in all the surveys. And who has had poor performance ratings for three years. Clearly, emotion is not keeping him from seeing reality clearly. Another possibility is that they think that through political power, government contracting, and the monopoly of major media, they can change reality. They can’t.

But for perspective, there is another reality that cannot be ignored. The number of voters mobilized by Jenniffer González is less than the number who voted for Pedro Pierluisi in 2020. In Sunday’s primary, 159,527 voters voted for Jenniffer González, while in 2020, 162,345 voters voted for Pierluisi. This means that the PNP and its gubernatorial candidate Jenniffer González, no matter how they want to tell about their great roots among the people, will not be able to mobilize more people than Pedro Pierluisi in 2020. The polls show that the sentiment of the PNP is stagnant and there is no electoral growth.

This stagnation could easily lead to fewer elections, because everyone is saying that the punitive vote led to Pedro Pierluis’s defeat on Sunday, but it was not necessarily a vote in favor of Jennifer González. There is a very important detail here. Jennifer González played the conservatism card in these primaries. At the same time, he played the punitive vote card and justifiably attacked the work of his own government. Both strategies worked for him in the primaries, but will cost him votes before the election.

First, Jennifer González is not conservative. However, in the primary, this question was not an important one because Pierluisi’s campaign could not establish these contrasts, as he also tried to appeal to conservatives, but was not conservative. Now, in the November election, Jenniffer González must answer clearly what she will do on abortion, gender ideology, the rights of parents to educate their children according to their beliefs and values, religious freedom, LGBTTIQ+ lobbying, economic freedom, limited government, enforcement of executive orders, mandatory vaccinations for everyone, and other issues of great interest to conservative voters, who are tired of empty promises and closely follow their silence and inaction in the face of all the battles. Where they have been in the past four years. Jennifer González was absent from all these battles. If he didn’t do it before, he won’t do it now.

In PPD, it is even worse. Your victorious candidate, Jesus Manuel Ortizreceived 83,045 votes in Sunday’s primary. Charlie DelgadoThe winner of the 2020 popular primary, defeating two other opponents alone, received 128,638 votes. That is, Jesús Manuel lost 45,593 votes to Charlie Delgado in the last primary. Charlie Delgado is a candidate who stands out among the rest thanks to his light and shadow. No one would be surprised that Jesús Manuel could easily appear on the ballot for Victoria Ciudadana. The floodgates are open, but not only to the left, flowing towards the Alliance, but also to the right, with a large flow of the masses who are unlikely to see themselves represented by a candidate who comes to implement the García Padilla 2.0 government. It was Alejandro Garcia PadillaJesus Manuel’s mentor, he proudly declared from rooftops that the Popular Democratic Party was a left-wing party.

Given this situation, the blinds of Javier Jiménez and Proyecto Dignidad are ready. Let’s dress slowly, we walk fast. With faith, we go forward!