{UAH} HISPANICS ARE FIRKIN COMMING HOME

Republicans have gained ground with Hispanic voters. They need to keep it up

by Alexis Valdez Darnell

 

 March 16, 2021 01:00 AM

Going into election night last year, pundits forecast a wholesale slaughter of Republican candidates at the ballot box, led, in part, by Hispanic voters who would cast off the GOP once and for all. Instead, Hispanic voters across the country reinforced what many of us already knew: The Latino vote is no monolith, and Latino voters may be more “up for grabs” than ever before.

The Republican Party has broadened its appeal among working-class voters, while the Democratic Party has shed these voters and captured elites. The result could very well be a more natural, growing, and enduring alignment between additional Hispanic voters and GOP candidates.

Over the past 10 years, for example, the share of blue-collar voters in the U.S. who identify as Republicans shot up 12 percentage points, according to a recent NBC News survey. Conversely, the share of blue-collar voters identifying as Democrats fell by 8 points. “Those are just disaffected, mostly rural white voters,” your friend might say. Not so. In fact, among Hispanic blue-collar voters, the share who identify as Republicans grew by 13 percentage points.

At the very least, Hispanic voters are listening to and watching both parties in action — enough to buck the “blue wave” prognostication of the last election and help win key congressional seats for Republicans in several states. Former President Donald Trump also increased his vote share in many immigrant communities around the nation.

The fact is that today’s Democratic Party is not the same as my grandparents’ Democratic Party. To be fair, neither is the Republican Party. But generally speaking, the lurch leftward by Democrats is riskier and potentially more alienating to a broad cross-section of Latino voters.

Respect for religious liberty has been replaced by intolerance and condescension.

Support for working people has given way to a radical agenda of open borders and the Green New Deal that would put them out of work.

Acceptance of capitalism as a way to achieve the American dream has given way to a flirtation with socialism that many Latinos are all too familiar with — and do not like.

“Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare” has become “abortion is A-OK up to the minute a child is born.”

Free speech on college campuses and in public life has died on the altar of Big Tech censorship and cancel culture.

And a strong national defense and appreciation of the country’s triumphs and values have been replaced by a now-constant barking about the country's supposed inadequacies and failures.

That’s a grab bag of positions and attitudes that is bound to rub many Hispanic voters the wrong way. Worse yet, any personal deviation from this new orthodoxy is met with a unique kind of scorn produced by the most aggressive period of identity politics our nation has ever seen.

It’s no wonder many Hispanics feel left behind and taken for granted.

So what does this ultimately mean for Republicans?

First, there’s a strong opening here. While Hispanics have historically been more open to ticket-splitting than other minority groups — remember that former President George W. Bush received an estimated 44% of the Hispanic vote in 2004 — at no point in the last several decades has the Republican Party itself been potentially more appealing and the Democratic Party more repulsive to large portions of the Hispanic electorate.

Finally, the Republican Party’s candidates in the next election will be its spokespeople. We should choose wisely. Issues and candidates matter. Authenticity, grace, grit, respect, and determination — they will all be viewed favorably. Hispanic communities around the nation, as diverse as they are, do share a similar story, with an emphasis on family, religious liberty, and a unique understanding of what it means to overcome personal struggles and succeed in the greatest, most promising nation on earth.

And there’s only one party left that places a premium on that.

A current and native New Mexican, Alexis Valdez Darnell is a managing director at the GOP digital firm Go BIG Media. For the last two decades, Valdez Darnell has served in senior leadership roles at the Republican National Committee and has played key roles in GOP campaigns across the country.

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