The GOP’s Latino opportunity
Mr. Nicholson invested heavily in outreach, hiring a brain trust of Latino marketers and political strategists. We surveyed which Hispanic populations—by region, age, sex, acculturation and ethnicity—would be most receptive to our message. We trained and deployed more than 40 surrogates with various levels of proficiency in Spanish and expertise in key issues. We customized everything. Surrogates of different Hispanic ethnic backgrounds spoke to different communities in different states, and ads varied state to state and community to community.
In tandem with then-Gov. George W. Bush’s popularity among Hispanics (he was, remember, a Spanish-speaking presidential candidate from a border state), our efforts helped Republicans more than double their share of the Hispanic vote over the next two presidential cycles, reaching 44% in 2004.
The winning Republican message for Hispanic voters was similar to what the party would have said to any group with a strong work ethic, a healthy distrust of government (often acquired from experience in home countries), traditional views on family and social issues, and an affinity for entrepreneurship. The Census revealed in 2010 that Hispanics were creating new small businesses at 2.5 times the rate of the general population.
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Marco Rubio can go a long way and capturing some of the Latino Vote, but the MSM is throwing up roadblocks. Already the hits jobs are well on their way. This ass clown MICHAEL HAINEY from GQ asks him how old the earth is. No questions about debt, unemployment or food stamps. WTF? How can we fight against this media BullShit?
http://www.gq.com/news-politics/politics/201212/marco-rubio-interview-gq-december-2012?printable=true&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitte
reddevil on November 19, 2012 at 10:14 AM
Yeah, I’m still not supporting amnesty, Leslie. Sorry.
Punchenko on November 19, 2012 at 10:15 AM
This is good news and all, but given the massive outreach efforts taking place, it’s clear this message isn’t getting through and the Hispanics are voting Democrat anyway.
I believe I’ve heard before that the black population also is theoretically closer to conservative political views in most aspects and yet we have a pretty good understanding of why they refuse to vote Republican despite desperate GOP efforts to compete with them.
Doomberg on November 19, 2012 at 10:18 AM
If they are doing so great under Democrat rule, why would they start voting Republican? Obama is probably providing the start up money for all these racially based businesses. It’s not like they have collateral to go to the bank.
Buddahpundit on November 19, 2012 at 10:24 AM
Almost every other new article is about amnesty here at HA. I’m not sure if you just want everyone to know what others are saying or is this an endorsement?
moonsbreath on November 19, 2012 at 10:32 AM
Ouch
faraway on November 19, 2012 at 10:39 AM
Who is this Leslie Sanchez, and from what alternate reality was she transported?
Laughable.
BocaJuniors on November 19, 2012 at 10:43 AM
Identity politics? No thanks. I’ll pass.
Paul-Cincy on November 19, 2012 at 10:47 AM
Before we reward a not-too-friendly, grudge-holding, poorly-functioning neighboring country for conniving at or even enabling our demographic shifts while relying on our economy as a safety valve, I’d like to hear from the foreign policy experts.
Seth Halpern on November 19, 2012 at 10:53 AM
Anyone advocating amnesty, is no friend of the GOP or a free America.
Rebar on November 19, 2012 at 11:00 AM
As I’ve been saying here forever, a lot of the problem is just our tone.
When Perry jumped into the race with his $14 million, the other candidates decided that the way to kill him was to out-harsh him on immigration issues. Many tru-cons dropped him like a hot potato over his “don’t have a heart” and “no matter your last name” comments. I was appalled by all this, since in Texas Repubs have long been walking that thin line of courting Hispanics, so we know what we’re doing for the most part. We’re having real success at recruiting Hispanics to run for office and win.
All those Yankee candidates falling over themselves in the debates to lie about the size of the fence they were going to build was was a ludicrous spectacle. I knew then that our share of the Hispanic vote would decrease, and it did, drastically. I think it even hurt down ticket races. Repubs are now a thoroughly damaged brand with Hispanics.
And I will remind you again, that if Texas goes blue, there will never again be a Republican president of the US. The nation’s survival is at stake.
The Democrats have this gamed out. They look at the long term, and they are licking their chops over TX going blue. Don’t let it happen.
juliesa on November 19, 2012 at 11:11 AM
Btw, I understand the claim that amnestied illegals will become (if they are not already in all but name) highly productive Americans, not cultural or political fifth columnists. Thus stipulating for the sake of argument, the fact remains that their presence is a function of Mexico’s passive-aggressive (to put it charitably) foreign policy. It is hardly coincidental that our thorniest immigration issue flows from a longstanding tension with a problematic neighbor state. That has never happened in American history. Yet nobody with any political clout seems to want to talk about it.
Seth Halpern on November 19, 2012 at 11:13 AM
BTW, I know we will never get a majority of Hispanics. All we need to do is keep them becoming a knee-jerk 95% block like blacks are. We need to get 35-40% of them, which is what we used to get. We just need to get back where we were.
juliesa on November 19, 2012 at 11:16 AM
Hispanics vote Democrat now for the same reason my small business owning parents were life-long Dems… they were told the Democrat party was for the “little guy” and the Republican party never tried to convince them otherwise. You can’t win when 1. you let the other side control the dialogue, and 2. you let the other side define who you are.
itsacookbook on November 19, 2012 at 11:48 AM
This.
We don’t need to focus on amnesty to convince Hispanics that the GOP would be good for their lives. It’s also worth remembering that our core message holds appeal to lots of groups. All we need to do is tweak the message to emphasize the right parts.
itsacookbook is right, too – the GOP needs to work hard and shed it’s label as the party that’s against the little guy.
hawksruleva on November 19, 2012 at 12:09 PM
Well said. Interesting that the border states don’t spend all their time talking about amnesty, but they DO talk about understanding people longing to live the American Dream.
hawksruleva on November 19, 2012 at 12:11 PM
Great!!! Let’s appeal to the 40% who respect our immigration laws.
Why do we always hear the noise from surrogates for the 54% of Hispanics who favor amnesty, and very little from the 40% who favor attrition through enforcement?
If attrition is explained by a GOP candidate as well as it is by this illegal alien going home (and taking his family with him), the GOP should be able to easily gain 40% (and NOT lose the conservative base!!!).
The meme pushed by so many noise-makers from the open borders side, that all Hispanics want amnesty, is an insult to ALL law-respecting Hispanics.
fred5678 on November 19, 2012 at 12:39 PM
What makes you believe this? Because he is Cuban?
Obama received a mere 5% uptick among African-American voters who were already loyal to Democrats. Hispanics/Latinos are well on their way to mirroring blacks allegiance to Dems.
Marco Rubio is going to be castigated from within the party ultimately revealing the deep-seated anti-Hispanic feelings within. They will be lost.
Unless we stop pandering and start listening.
Capitalist Hog on November 19, 2012 at 12:47 PM
Rubio’s best friend other than his wife is Jim DeMint?
WTF?
Capitalist Hog on November 19, 2012 at 12:49 PM
Btw the politician who got that 44% of Hispanic votes not only pushed amnesty but oversaw the biggest expansion of the entitlement state in 40 years. So I’m not sure how you infer a Latino distrust of government from that.
Seth Halpern on November 19, 2012 at 12:50 PM
I guess Charles would also fix the problem of a leaking ship by declaring the incoming seawater to be “cargo”, rather than fixing the hole in the hull and starting to bail.
Amnesty, or declaring the incoming seawater to be “cargo”, doesn’t stop the leak and doesn’t solve the problem — it just creates a bigger magnet for the next wave of illegal immigrants.
A huge illegal work force really hurts the most recent LEGAL immigrants — always has, always will.
50% of Democrats, 60% of Independents, 62% of Republicans, %60 of women, etc., etc, agree, along with 40% of Hispanics and 63% of blacks.
fred5678 on November 19, 2012 at 12:52 PM