“The fact that you have Latinos and a black among the leading candidates is just coincidence,” said J.C. Watts, a former Oklahoma congressman who became one of the nation’s most prominent African American Republicans. “It doesn’t speak to what’s beneath the surface. We’re still not talking about the concerns of that young black couple starting a business or that young Hispanic family,” he said, adding: “Where are our solutions to deal with incarceration reform, unemployment, the trouble blacks and Hispanics have getting home mortgages? Republicans who ignore Ferguson and Baltimore and Black Lives Matter are refusing to hear the depths of what people are experiencing.”…

Cruz’s campaign is premised on the idea that it’s the conservative base, and especially evangelical Christian voters, who can put him over the top. Winning a larger share of the Hispanic vote would be nice, but the realistic upside isn’t high enough to make a difference in the outcome of the election, they believe.

To make his case about how misguided it is to focus on Hispanics as a separate voting group, Tyler likes to ask people what House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D) and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R) have in common. Most people come up empty.

“They’re both Italian American, but people don’t get that at first,” Tyler said. “But there was a time when that would have been the first thing people noticed. Democrats don’t like it, but we’re approaching a time when you’ll say ‘Rodriguez and Gonzalez’ and nobody will see what they have in common until you remind them they’re both Hispanic.”