Latinos aren't a "cheap date" for Democrats anymore

Another Republican who actively marketed himself to Hispanic voters was Rep. Cory Gardner in Colorado, who handily defeated Democratic Senator Mark Udall. Gardner was criticized by fellow conservatives for “Hispandering” in reaching out to an ethnic group that makes up a fifth of Colorado residents. Media reports confirm that Gardner made a significant pitch to Hispanic voters in both English and Spanish. Of course, in doing so, he had a lot of help from Washington. The Republican National Committee, which sent workers to 11 states with large Hispanic populations, dispatched three full-time Hispanic outreach coordinators to Colorado.

Consider also that, in some races, Democrats didn’t just ignore Hispanics but went out of their way to antagonize them as a way of appealing to conservative white voters. There was the ill-fated reelection campaign of Senator Kay Hagan in North Carolina, who lost to Republican Thom Tillis. For weeks leading up to the election, Hagan ran television commercials touting her opposition to “amnesty” for “illegal aliens.” Here’s a tip: Those kinds of nativist buzzwords will not endear you to many Hispanics.

And sure enough, before long, immigration activists in North Carolina were picketing Hagan at campaign events. When she responded by claiming to be a “friend” to immigrants, the activists stormed the stage at one event and chanted: “Friends don’t deport friends.” Optics like that only contributed to the perception by many in North Carolina that Hagan’s campaign was self-destructing.