GOP Could Win Big Gains Among Hispanics, Advisor Says

More Hispanics are going to be voting Republican because the Democratic Party has moved so far left, according to the president of the Libre Initiative.“The political winds are shifting,” says Daniel Garza, who champions what he calls “the three Fs” — faith, family, and freedom — as he runs the free-market advocacy group based just outside of Washington, D.C.Speaking by phone from his home in Mission, Texas, Mr. Garza contends “the left have left Latinos behind.” Latino voters have not yet abandoned the Democrats — backing the party’s nominees for president by two-to-one margins in 2016 and 2020 — but President Trump did swing a good chunk of support. Latino voters cast 61 percent of their votes for Biden-Harris in 2020, a drop from the 66 percent who backed Hillary Clinton in 2016.Mr. Trump made the most noticeable gains in places like Florida’s Miami-Dade County and Texas’s Rio Grande Valley. According to a report by the data firm Catalist, the number of Latinos who cast votes increased by 31 percent between 2016 and 2020, when they accounted for a 10th of the electorate. While the 52-year-old Mr. Garza admits that part of the reason some of the Latino vote went to Mr. Trump was the president’s celebrity, he believes that Republicans can make bigger inroads into the community — if they do three things.“First, connect,” he says. “Show up. Connect to Latino communities, connect through social media. For decades, conservatives didn’t show up. Second, make your case. Right now Republican ideas are superior and are in the policy sweet spot — economic growth, freedom, security, high-paying energy sector jobs, and a legal pathway to immigration. Third, be part of the community. Don’t just come around when there is an election.” Mr. Garza points to the success of politicians like Senator Cornyn, who earned more than 40 percent of the Latino vote in his last election, to indicate that the right can win even without Mr. Trump. Mr. Garza served in the George W. Bush administration as deputy director of external and intergovernmental affairs in the Office of the Secretary at the Department of Interior, and in 2004 was appointed associate director of the Office of Public Liaison in the White House. In 2007 he hosted and co-produced “Agenda Washington,” a weekly Spanish-language news talk show on Univision.Mr. Garza suggests that Mr. Trump’s gains in the Rio Grande and Miami-Dade are telling. “That says something,” he says. “In Texas there is an angst about the indifference to border security. It’s not just immigrants coming in, it’s drugs, it’s criminals. In Florida, there is an entire infrastructure there that is a model. Latinos have businesses, communities, and outreach. It’s a model for what other places could do.”Mr. Garza claims that the right is “outgunned” by the unions, the Spanish-language media, and elite institutions like Hollywood and academia. Still, he says, they are beginning to turn away from high-profile leaders like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represent what Mr. Garza calls “niche urban areas.”Add it up, and the Latino vote certainly bears watching in upcoming elections.

GOP Could Win Big Gains Among Hispanics, Advisor Says

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