However, Democrats hardly have a lock on that vote in battleground Florida, particularly among the nearly 2 million Floridians of Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan origin. According to an Associated Press survey, about a third of Cuban American midterm voters identified as Democrats.

In Florida, where Hispanics account for nearly one in every five voters, that skepticism could present a major hurdle for Sanders in the states primary, and for Democrats hoping to win Floridas 29 electoral votes in November.

Sanders socialist identification and his willingness to praise leftist regimes have given his Democratic opponents ammunition to question his electability in a state with a large Cuban American population that remains fiercely skeptical of leftist governments. Sanders comments about the Castro regime could play a large role in how he fares in Floridas March 17 primary.

This is not about what coups happened in the 1970s and 80s, this is about the future, Buttigieg said. Mayor Pete Buttigieg lamented that the candidates were debating about Cold War-era policies. Sanders reference to Obama did not sit well with former Vice President Joe Biden, who claimed that his boss never embraced an authoritarian regime, while former South Bend, Ind. support in overthrowing leaders in those countries in the 1970s and 80s. It might be a good idea to be honest of American foreign policy and that is the American government helped overthrow governments in Chile, Nicaragua, and Iran, Sanders said in reference to U.S. The Vermont lawmaker said there is a reticence among Americans to look back at Washingtons own history of overthrowing foreign governments and supporting dictators. Is that a bad thing? Even though Fidel Castro did it? Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, has refused to back down from his comments arguing during Tuesday nights debate in South Carolina that former President Barack Obama had once praised the Castro regimes progress on education and healthcare. When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. They're actually at the core of who we are. That’s the truth, we can talk about these terms as if they don't matter, but they do. We can go around and around in circles about trying to talk about and defining socialism, but at its core I was intrigued by an op-ed that I saw not too long ago by a Democrat from Cuba commenting on one of our colleagues, an avowed socialist, and essentially pointing out the extent to which democratic socialism is a lot like the system my family fled except its proponents promised to be nicer when seizing your business. Viktor Bout has been international arms trafficking enemy number one for many years, arming some of the most violent conflicts around the globe, he was finally brought to justice in an American court for agreeing to provide a staggering number of military-grade weapons to an avowed terrorist organization committed to killing Americans. Tea Party had nothing to do with his ideology, or that we would rather have Bernie against Donald Trump than Joe Biden, we just want to move the numbers so that the conversation is open on the primaries, just for the sake of optics, it would be great to be able to contrast the ideology of an avowed socialist versus a capitalist.

Avowed definition