Cuban-Americans have had an outsized influence in keeping the U.S. embargo since Fidel Castro seized power . Now a younger generation , with strong familial ties there but far removed from the memories of Castro 's revolution , want the embargo to end . `` Asking whether someone is for or against the embargo was a good question in 1962 , '' said Giancarlo Sopo , a 31-year-old Miami-born marketing executive in New York . `` We 've allowed this policy to become the 800-pound gorilla in the room and a distraction from the atrocities of the regime , the human rights abuses , and the aspirations of the Cuban people , '' he added . His statement is startling . Sopo says his grandfather was murdered by the Castro regime . Sopo 's father , who he says witnessed the killing , fought in the Bay of Pigs invasion . According to analysts , as more Cuban-American millennials begin to question the embargo , more will begin to abandon their Republican roots for the Democratic Party , like Sopo did . Democrats have long-hoped to make inroads with Cuban-Americans , the only Latino group that still leans Republican , and have taken notice of the generational shift . Former Secretary of State , Hillary Clinton , deemed the clear front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 , recently said she would like to see the U.S. move toward normalizing relations with Cuba . `` I think it has propped up the Castros because they can blame everything on the embargo , '' she said during a July interview on Fusion . CNN reached out for comment but no one from Clinton 's office was immediately available for a response . This year 's Florida gubernatorial race will measure just how strong the GOP 's grasp on Cuban Americans remains . Incumbent Republican Gov . Rick Scott who supports the embargo faces former Republican-now-Democrat Governor Charlie Crist who during a July campaign stop in Miami 's Little Havana openly called for an end to the embargo , a move that had been considered political suicide in the state . At a debate sponsored by CNN in Florida earlier this week , Crist said he would n't be willing to go so far as meeting with Raul Castro , but he defended his opposition to the embargo . `` The embargo has been in place for over 50 years , it has not worked . The intent of the embargo was to get rid of the Castro brothers . They 're still there , '' Crist said . Related : Florida debate turns bitter . `` The message that worked well in the past -- Cuban Embargo -- and moved older Cubans to vote Republican , is not as impactful for younger U.S. born Cubans , '' said Luis Miranda Jr. , a managing partner at MirRam Group , a political consulting firm . He says messages of employment , economic recovery and fixing the broken immigration system is what resonates with this group . It 's not just Cuban-Americans , many young Latinos are questioning the embargo . Twenty nine-year-old old Chicago-based writer Hector Luis Alamo , who is of Puerto Rican and Honduran descent , says people in his generation feel that `` It 's about damn time '' for the embargo to end . Alamo says that he and every other millennial he knows desperately want the opportunity to travel to Cuba -- even those that are not Cuban . `` I do n't believe that [ being of Cuban descent ] matters , '' Alamo said . `` As an American , I have a vested interest in the policies of my government not only towards its own citizens , but also towards the citizens of other countries . '' On Oct. 11 , the NY Times joined the anti-embargo chorus . `` For the first time in more than 50 years , shifting politics in the United States and changing policies in Cuba make it politically feasible to re-establish formal diplomatic relations and dismantle the senseless embargo '' , wrote the Times ' editorial board . `` The generation that adamantly supports the embargo is dying off . Younger Cuban-Americans hold starkly different views , having come to see the sanctions as more damaging than helpful . '' A June poll by Florida International University found that more than half of Cuban-Americans surveyed in Miami support an end to the embargo and a solid majority of them also favor restoring diplomatic relations with Havana . The Obama administration has not endorsed lifting the embargo , however . And it can only be lifted by Congress and as Mauricio Claver-Carone , Director of the U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC , a lobby group in favor of keeping the embargo , points out , all seven Cuban-American legislators , including senators Marco Rubio , Ted Cruz and Bob Menendez , are against doing so . Still , the Cuban-American community is changing . `` The Cuban-American community is definitely different from that of several years ago , '' says Professor Mauricio Font , Director of New York University 's Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies . `` It has a large number of post-1990 immigrants who generally oppose the Castro regime but may want to keep the options to travel to Cuba . Furthermore , the 'historicos ' who came to the U.S. in the late '50 's and 60 's are also experiencing attrition from aging . '' The United States and Cuba have been at odds for over 50 years . Both sides have recently taken small steps towards a reconciliation . In 2011 , President Barack Obama eased travel restrictions to the island for American citizens and last week , Cuba said it would be willing to cooperate with Washington to help fight the Ebola epidemic in West Africa . But , only time will tell if a new generation of young , engaged Latino voters can exert enough political heat to completely thaw a relationship frozen during the Cold War .
A new generation of Cuban-Americans is re-thinking the 50 year-old embargo . The Cuban government has been trying to open up its economy for more than half a century.