Analysts and advocacy groups question why Republicans are skipping key meetings if they aim to connect with Hispanics
WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidates are squandering the opportunity to reach Latino voters in larger numbers, according to political analysts and advocacy groups looking at the 2016 field. And it’s not all GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s fault.
Trump’s divisive remarks on immigration aside, no Republican presidential candidate even bothered to show up in June at the annual convention of the nation’s largest Latino advocacy group, the National Council of La Raza.
La Raza spokesman, Julian Teixeira said the civil rights group invited candidates and he doesn’t understand how GOP hopefuls could skip out on such a gathering if they want to create a stronger connection with Latinos.
“It was a missed opportunity for the Republican candidates,” Teixeira said.
For a party struggling to connect with Latino voters, who are seen as key to victory in 2016, it’s a puzzling decision.
A Republican candidate needs as much as 47 percent of Latino voters to win the presidency, based on the latest polling by Latino Decisions. The last GOP candidate to garner at least 40 percent of the Latino vote was President George W. Bush in 2004.
“For all the talk about Republicans trying to reach out to Latino voters and perhaps the necessity of that…” said Geoffrey Skelly, the associate editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “They [Republicans] aren’t, at least at the moment, doing it.”
There are two Republican candidates for president, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and current Sen. Marco Rubio, who have a familial connection to Latino culture and Hispanic heritage. Both are also from Florida, a state with a significant immigrant population.
But Bush, the GOP candidate winning the most favor in recent Univision poll of Hispanic voters, trails Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton. She’s getting 67 percent of the demographics’ vote in 2016, with Bush far behind at 27 percent of the vote, poll respondents said 16 months before Election Day.
The “thorny” topic of immigration is the reason why Skelly believes GOP candidates skipped out on the La Raza conference.
“Appearing at La Raza is opening yourself up to questions about your position on immigration particularly in an environment where most people are probably going to support some sort of immigration plan, “ Skelly said. “Anytime you’re talking about the politics of the United States the first national issue is immigration.”
When it comes to immigration Bush and Rubio, as well as fellow contender, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, all have different stances on the controversial topic.
Cruz’s campaign website states he authored legislation to “simplify” the legal immigration system and ultimately treat all immigrants equally.
Rubio’s site glosses over his position on immigration, saying only that overhauling immigration, among other things, will bring more viable jobs to Americans.
Bush seems to ignore the topic of immigration all together on his official campaign website.
The candidates are skirting the immigration issue, Skelly said, because they don’t need Latino voters to win in Republican primaries.
“It would probably help them to make inroads in the long run, but in the short run candidates are mainly focused on winning the primary and Latino voters aren’t really going to have much of an impact there on the Republican side,” said Skelly.
“The general [election] for Republicans is the only place where Latino voters will come into play.”
So conventional wisdom that Bush or Rubio might help carry the GOP to a win in November of 2016 based on Latino connections? That idea does not hold much bearing on how or why voters might connect, said David Denmore at Latino Decisions, a research organization that focuses on Latinos in politics.
“It’s not just the ethnic identification and the language, it’s really what policies these folks are advocating for,” Denmore said.
Denmore said the GOP does care about Latino voters, obviously, but does not know how to approach them.
“You hear this rhetoric from the GOP, ‘Oh we’re doing outreach, we’re in the community.’ But they’re not showing up to major, high-profile events because they don’t want to be grilled on immigration,” Denmore said.
Even though they didn’t show up at La Raza, Daniel Garza, the executive director of The Libre Initiative, an organization funded in part by the conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch, says Republican candidates are reaching out to Latino voters.
“I think the Republican Party has recognized this and it’s actively seeking out this type of engagement with Hispanics,” said Garza. “It says a lot that they have candidates like Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and even Jeb, who are either Latinos or have worked to ensure opportunities are afforded to our community.”
In the minds of outsiders, immigration should and could be the most important issue to Latino voters.
According to a recent Pew Research national poll, 49 percent of Latinos were concerned with the economy during the 2014 mid-term elections.
La Raza spokesman Teixeira agrees Latino voters are just like any other American voter.
“We want to hear those issues that are important to all Americans: job creation, health care, better schools, better roads, better infrastructure and of course we want to hear a solution for resolving immigration issues,” Teixeira said.
Which is why La Raza does not understand why the GOP would leave such an expansive — and expanding — demographic untapped.
“We need to hear from you and you need to address our issues and you need to speak to our community,” Teixeira said, speaking to the GOP candidates.
The Director of Hispanic Media at the Republican National Committee did not respond to repeated requests to comment for this article.