Progressive wokeness helped former President Donald Trump grow support among Hispanics in 2020, one Republican operative told the Washington Examiner.
Trump took 38% of the Hispanic vote in November – an improvement of 10 percentage points from four years earlier, according to a post-election survey from the Pew Research Center.
Daniel Garza, who runs LIBRE Initiative — a conservative group focused on outreach to Hispanics — credits Democrat proposals to defund the police and abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as a climate agenda that would eliminate the use of fossil fuels with sending Latinos to support Trump and the GOP.
“They are rejecting woke progressivism,” Garza told the Examiner in a telephone interview Tuesday.
While Trump’s focus on creating jobs also helped win over Hispanics, Garza told the Examiner that Democrats’ sharp move to the left on cultural issues was a greater impact.
One Democrat operative in Texas, however, rejects claims that 2020 marked a turning point in the GOP’s quest to become more competitive with the Latino demographic.
Ed Espinoza said it was not so much that the Democrats’ cultural left turn on issues turned off Hispanics. Instead, Trump’s politically charged immigration rhetoric connected with some Latinos, especially men.
“This is a community that is not a monolith,” Ed Espinoza told the Examiner. “Latinos are not a base electorate — they are a persuasion and base electorate.
“It’s not surprising that Trump hit 40% with Latino men. They are more conservative. It has to do with the culture, with guns. It seems like every Latino I know has a Republican brother.”
President Joe Biden beat Trump among Hispanic voters overall 59% to 38%, according to the Pew Research Center poll. That compared to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton winning Latinos by a 66% to 28% advantage in 2016.
Trump last year produced the best GOP showing with Hispanics in a national election since President George W. Bush captured 40% in 2004.
In winning 40% of Hispanic men last year, Trumps was 13 points better than Republican candidates in the 2018 midterm elections. (Pew did not have a gender breakdown comparing 2016 and 2020.)
Also, Trump’s 37% with Hispanic women was 14 points better than GOP candidates two years earlier.
The 45th president in November earned 41% of the vote among Hispanics with some college education or less. Latinos with a college education or more, though, supported Biden 69% to 30%, according to Pew.
The Pew Research Center post-election poll was based on interviews with 11,818 voters who participated in its American Trends Panel between Nov. 12–17 of last year.
Early last month, Republicans won three mayoral elections in Texas to increase the party’s hope of building on significant gains with Latino voters.
The most significant victory occurred in the border town of McAllen, Texas, where Hillary Clinton defeated Trump by nearly 40 points in 2016. The GOP also secured mayoral victories in Fort Worth and Arlington.
Story cited here.
