Bronx native Ritchie Torres represents New York’s 15th congressional district which covers most of the South Bronx. The Congressman’s biography emphasizes his hardscrabble Bronx upbringing, colored by a strong sense of the haves vs. the have-nots and shadowed early by the imprint of a New York real estate mogul named Donald Trump.
“While Ritchie grew up with mold, lead, leaks, and no reliable heat or hot water in the winter,” it reads, “he watched the government spend over $100 million dollars to build a golf course across the street for Donald Trump.”
This week Torres is amplifying a video (below) from former President Trump’s rally in the South Bronx — and reporting that the crowd demographics don’t fit the profile of his borough: “Donald Trump’s rally may be IN the South Bronx but it is not OF the South Bronx. Bluntly put, the Trump transplants are much whiter than the locals of the South Bronx, which is almost entirely Latino and Black.”
Donald Trump’s rally may be IN the South Bronx but it is not OF the South Bronx.
Bluntly put, the Trump transplants are much whiter than the locals of the South Bronx, which is almost entirely Latino and Black. pic.twitter.com/Ft7dxjuUGH
— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) May 23, 2024
According to the NYU Furman Center, in 2022 there were an estimated 1,379,946 people in The Bronx, of which 3.9% identified as Asian, 28.2% identified as Black, 56.6% identified as Hispanic, and 8.3% identified as White.
When asked on X “does their race really matter?”, Rep. Torres replied: “My posting is more about transplants than race. The mention of race here is relevant only for the purpose of assessing whether Trump’s rally is truly representative of the South Bronx and whether his support in the South Bronx runs as deep as he claims.”