Hispanic Republicans Yes but Republican Party No

Written for: TheAmericano.com

Who could forget Senator Harry Reid’s rhetorical question, “how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican?” Well, since the midterm elections of 2010 Reid got his visual confirmation on many fronts especially within his home turf with his newly elected governor, Brian Sandoval.

Across the country other Hispanic Republicans marked their territories such as Senator-elect Marco Rubio (FL), 1st Latina Governor-elect Susana Martinez (NM), Congressmen-elect Bill Flores (TX) and Raul Labrador (ID). The list goes on if you include South Florida’s delegation and David Rivera who replaced Lincoln Diaz-Balart and the many other elected officials at state and local levels.

The racist accusations the Tea Party movement received is now “null and void.” How could these so called “teabaggers” be racist if they helped elect so many Hispanic Republicans as well as other minorities such as Nikki Haley and Tim Scott of South Carolina and Allen West in Florida?

It appears the one group that was most opinionated of many of these notable Hispanic Republican candidates were Hispanic themselves. According to CNN’s exit polls, Sandoval only received 33% of the Latino vote in Nevada, while according to Latino Decisions, Martinez obtained 38% in New Mexico. Although Rubio won 55% of the Hispanic vote, two-thirds of non-Cuban Hispanics (primarily along the I-4 corridor) voted against him.

In the Sunshine State, several Spanish papers in central Florida’s I-4 Corridor endorsed Charlie Crist citing Rubio’s strong stance on illegal immigration. During a debate, Governor Charlie Crist even quoted one of the papers that suggested Rubio “turned his back on his Hispanic family.”

Like most Americans, numerous studies indicate that the Economy and Education are the top two concerns among Hispanics however the immigration rhetoric among just a handful of Republicans reflects negatively on all Republicans regardless if they are Latino or not. If you want a sample of what average Latino Americans and non-Latinos are saying, not only about Hispanic Republicans but all Republicans, look no further than the Social Networking world.

So what now for the GOP? Firstly, the Republican Party should not depend on Hispanic elected officials to represent them as a ‘party of diversity’ or to have them speak on the party’s behalf in regards to reaching out to Latino communities and voters. No one likes to be coined a “token Hispanic” while at the same time many Hispanics may feel that they can not connect with them due to perception whether by party affiliation or appearance (the white collared look).

Secondly, just because the party has high-profiled Latino leaders the GOP cannot suspend any genuine Hispanic engagement (outreach) and needs to consider that it takes more than sporadically translating a press release. On the national level, Hispanics still favored Democrats, recently supporting Democratic House races 64% to that of Republicans at 34%. It is evident that if Hispanics still support Democrats over Republicans and are not yet keen on supporting fellow Hispanics in the GOP, then the party needs to act immediately on developing an effective marketing and communications plan before the younger generation of Latinos become more engaged in U.S. politics and put the GOP in the minority.