California Republican’s Latino Problem
Every election from 2006 to 2010 has shown Latino voters increasingly moving towards the Democratic Party. In the recent general election in November, 60% of Latinos voted Democrat. This is especially true in California and in no small amount helping the Democratic Party sweep all major state offices in last year’s general election. As the Republican Party faces proof of life questions in the Golden State, is it even possible that the GOP can come back and win support from one of the largest and most loyal Democratic voting blocs?
Probably the last time the GOP probably had any chance of gaining support from the Latino voting bloc was with Ronald Reagan. The former California Governor proved decently popular with Latino voters, granting more than 3 million undocumented immigrants in the United States amnesty in 1986. But with an increasingly hardline rhetoric from the national GOP, Latinos have been leaving the Republican Party en mass; turned off by their anti-immigrant stance on subjects like Immigration Reform and their defeat of the DREAM Act in the Senate back in December.