McCain: GOP needs to “fix our problems with the Hispanics”
Sen. John McCain (R), the GOP’s 2008 presidential nominee, says that his party’s problem with Latinos could endanger its standing in states that have long been Republican strongholds. (Talk Media News, Flickr)
By JORDAN FABIAN
Channel: Politics
Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) on Thursday admitted what many in the political world have been saying for some time: his party has a problem with Latino voters.
McCain, his party’s 2008 presidential nominee, had an interesting exchange on MSNBC when asked if his home state, which traditionally votes Republican, could be up for grabs in 2012.
Chuck Todd: Very quickly, Arizona in play?
McCain: I think if not this election cycle, the demographics are that Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, even Texas will be in play.
Todd: And if Republicans don’t fix the problem?
McCain: Yes, yes. We have to fix our problems with the Hispanics.
Todd: And it starts where?
McCain: It starts with a way to address the issue of immigration in a humane and caring fashion, at the same time emphasizing the need to secure our borders because of the drug cartels and the people who transport people across our border and treat them terribly.
What’s ironic is that McCain is blamed by many for hastening this problem. The Arizona senator walked away from his support for comprehensive immigration reform during his presidential campaign and his 2010 Senate reelection race, when he backed his state’s controversial crackdown law.
In 2008, McCain won only 31 percent of the Latino vote, nearly 10 points less than the support George W. Bush received from Latinos during his 2004 reelection.
And the candidate McCain recently endorsed, Mitt Romney, is underwater with Latino voters: A Pew Hispanic Center poll released last month showed the former Massachusetts governor is trailing Obama 68-23 percent among Latinos.
Even though the economy is the number one issue for Latino voters, immigration can be a deal breaker. In that light, observers target Romney’s rightward shift on immigration in large part for his problems with Latino voters.
The candidate has slammed his rivals Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich for backing benefits for undocumented immigrants, which he dubbed “magnets” and pledged he would veto the DREAM Act if he is elected president. Evidence of Romney’s strategy are his most recent mailers against illegal immigration his campaign distributed in South Carolina.
But in another ironic twist, Romney might win over Latino voters in the early primary state that has the biggest contingent of them: Florida. A large percentage of Latino GOP voters in Florida are Cuban-Americans who don’t consider immigration a top political issue.
But where Romney could run into problems is in some of the southwestern states that McCain listed - Colorado and New Mexico - where the voters are of Mexican descent and care more about the immigration issue. While they might not play a key role in the GOP primary, those voters could be decisive in the general election.
Moving forward, Republican candidates should understand that there is a path to reaching out to Latino voters sitting under their noses.
While other candidates have largely ignored Latino voters, Gingrich has personally reached out to them in early primary states. He’s also circulated campaign literature in Spanish that emphasizes the importance of the Latino community and contrasts his economic vision with President Obama’s.
In addition, Gingrich has embraced a path to legality for some undocumented immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for decades. And Jon Huntsman has even backed the DREAM Act.
Seven years ago, Republicans were talking about building their majority with the help of Latinos. Now, their problems run very deep and if they don’t turn it around soon, like McCain said, it could be too late.
