ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida — Florida and Ohio have both been closely fought swing states in recent presidential elections, deciding the fate of those contests in 2000 and 2004, respectively, for Republicans.
The irony is that Florida — one of the most historical and ethnically diverse melting pots in the nation — has defeated a promising presidential candidate who powerfully spoke to the aspirations of the immigrant ideal in America.
In the presidential primary of 2016, Florida and Ohio were vital in the battle between Republican presidential candidates. They would determine whether any of the other candidates has a chance to stop Donald Trump's potential selection as the party's nominee.
The split decision Tuesday means that the answer remains unclear.
Trump ended the candidacy of Sen. Marco Rubio by defeating him in his own state, 46 percent to 27 percent. (Sen. Ted Cruz took 17 percent, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich took 7 percent.)
But in winning in his home state of Ohio, which has a 150-year history of switching between Republicans and Democrats, Kasich lived to fight for another day. (Kasich took 45 percent of the vote, versus 37 percent for Trump, 14 percent for Cruz and 3 percent for Rubio.)
As a result, it is more likely than not that none of the remaining three candidates — Trump, Cruz or Kasich — will secure the necessary 1,237 delegates needed to win the Republican nomination of the first ballot when they gather in Cleveland in July.
After the first ballot, delegates are free from their pledge to support their first-choice nominee. Who remains standing will be anyone's guess.
In other words, we'll be back to more traditional 19th- and early 20th-century politics, where the candidate emerging from the parties' political conventions was the one most acceptable to a majority of delegates.
Trump and Cruz (to a lesser extent) have made hostility to immigration a hallmark of their campaigns.
But unlike his colleague in the Senate, also the son of a Cuban immigrant, Rubio preserved greater flexibility for himself in dealing with the issue of immigration, should he have prevailed in this contest.
Here in St. Augustine, the oldest city in America — over which four national flags have flown — multiethnic immigration goes back many centuries.
Settled in 1565 by Spaniards, St. Augustine was attacked over the next two centuries by British forces, until Spain built the Castillo de San Marcos in 1672 to defend the city.
But in 1763, Spain traded Florida to Great Britain for Havana, Cuba, which had been captured by the British in the Seven Years' War. This inaugurated a 20-year experiment in British rule — contemporaneously with the establishment of the United States of America — during which time a most unusual settlement of immigrants took place.
Scottish physician Dr. Andrew Turnbull, a friend of the governor of the British East Florida, decided to recruit settlers from the island of Minorca, east of Spain, and from the Greek Islands.
"Turnbull's original plan had involved 500 colonists, but the number had more than doubled when the ships departed," according to an exhibit at the Greek Orthodox shrine to St. Photios here. Wars and massacres between Greece and Turkey swelled the number of recruits.
"The travelers left with new hopes and dreams. They saw an escape from starvation, persecution, tyranny and oppression. Turnbull offered them a new beginning."
The 1,300 settlers colonized New Smyrna, after the Greek city of that name, about 70 miles south of here. It was the largest single group to settle on the American continent to that point in time, and the first from Minorca or Greece.
Although the colony produced large quantities of indigo, it suffered from insect-borne diseases, Indian raids and tensions between the British overseers and the settlers. About 600 of the original colonists survived the first years. In 1777, the remainder moved to St. Augustine, where their descendants now live.
Florida was becoming a seat of British loyalists. The Florida colonies sent no representatives to the Second Continental Congress. It remained British until 1783, when the Peace of Paris handed control back to Spain. The state became part of the United States in 1821 and seceded to the Confederacy before returning to the Union with the rest of the Southern states.
In succeeding years, waves of immigrants from other shores — including Cuba — have populated Florida.
In his concession speech Tuesday night, Rubio spoke to what might have been. He spoke of the pilgrims, the settlers who crossed the plains, to immigrants and to exiles “who knew and believed that they were destined for more.”
An America that is rich and powerful, but which shunts aside immigrants, “will no longer be special.”
May the Republican Party, and this nation, heed this message before it’s too late.
Drew Clark is of counsel at the law firm of Best Best and Krieger, where he focuses on technology, media and telecommunications. Connect on Twitter @drewclark or via email at drewclark@bbklaw.com.