Univision News

By MATTHEW JAFFE
Channel: Politics 

MIAMI — Newt Gingrich might not have won rave reviews for his performance in Thursday night’s debate in Jacksonville — the final one before Tuesday’s Florida primary — but he won at least one new voter in this Latino hotbed state.

Gathered in front of a television in their house towards the south of Miami were the Lacayo family and their friends the Patinos. Only days before the primary, the four Republican voters — who all hail from Nicaragua — went into the debate still undecided, but they did not stay that way. 

No sooner had the debate started than CNN’s moderator dove right into the controversial topic of immigration — an especially heated issue in Florida, the state with the sixth-largest Latino population.

“Is he still the most anti-immigrant candidate?” Blitzer asked Newt Gingrich of his rival Mitt Romney, days after the former House Speaker dubbed Romney as such in a Spanish-language ad.

“I think out of the four of us, yes,” Gingrich replied, despite having pulled the spot due to Sen. Marco Rubio’s complaints.

“That’s simply inexcusable, inexcusable,” fired back Romney. “The idea that I’m anti-immigrant is repulsive.”

Vilma Lacayo was pleased to see immigration batting lead-off at the debate.

“It seems very significant to me that in Florida they’ve started with that issue,” she said in an interview in Spanish.

Gingrich, who has voiced the most moderate position on immigration of all the Republican candidates, came out of that exchange looking good in Lacayo’s eyes.

“I think that Gingrich has a more flexible position, more open towards immigration,” she said.

“And you need to have that type of compassion?” I asked.

“You have to have that type of compassion with people,” she responded. “You have to have it as president, not just in this case, but in many situations that he will face, he has to act that way.”

It wasn’t only immigration that perked the voters’ ears, but also foreign policy towards Central America, especially when Rick Santorum highlighted Nicaragua.

“We not only have to come together as an economic unit, but the threat of terrorism, the threat of Iran now in Venezuela and in other places, and Cuba and in Nicaragua, the threat of radical Islam in that region — it is absolutely important for us to have a president who understands the solution is closer ties,” Santorum said.

Jorge Patino wanted to hear more about the situation in Central America.

“It’s really important that each candidate takes a position on this issue in particular because it’s something that’s affecting the relationship with the United States,” Patino said.

Patricia Patino, too, liked what she heard from Santorum, but she acknowledged that voting for the former Pennsylvania senator on Tuesday might be a throw-away vote since he trails Gingrich and Romney by such wide margins here.

Still, she said she was now deciding not to support Romney, despite entering the debate leaning towards the former Massachusetts governor.

“I’m seeing some things that I don’t like, like that he’s definitely against the DREAM Act,” she said, mentioning the Democrats’ bill to provide a path to citizenship for some children of illegal immigrants who serve in the military or attend college.

While she said she was not sure whom she would ultimately back, Vilma Lacayo had made up her mind.

“The more I’m listening to Gingrich,” she told me, “the more he seems presidential.”

“Why?” I asked.

“I look at the way he handles issues in general, I look at his experience, he knows about everything,” Lacayo said. “He’s winning my vote.”

Only four days before the primary, that leaves one less undecided voter — in a race that’s shaping up to be a neck-and-neck battle.

Matthew Jaffe is covering the 2012 campaign for ABC News and Univision.