In the battle for Hispanic voters, Dems say they win because they got more Hispanic lawmakers
Original Article: Washington Times. 11/18/22
Republicans may have made inroads with Hispanic voters. However, House Democrats boast that they still reign supreme when it comes to Hispanic members of Congress.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ campaign arm on Friday introduced nine new members to their caucus, the largest class of its kind in congressional history.
“Pundits said that the Latino vote was going strongly and swiftly to Republicans. They said that there was a massive realignment that was happening that is shaking up politics and could potentially doom Democrats to the minority in perpetuity. Let me tell you, that did not happen,” said Rep. Ruben Gallego, the Arizona Democrat who chairs the BOLD PAC that works to elect Hispanic Democrats.
Mr. Gallego was joined by incumbent Reps. Tony Cardenas of California and Veronica Escobar of Texas.
Incoming members who will be a part of the caucus will include Reps.-elect Andrea Salinas of Oregon, Maxwell Alejandro Frost of Florida, Yadira Caraveo of Colorado, Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico, Greg Casar of Texas, Delia Ramirez of Illinois, Robert Garcia of California, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington and Rob Menendez of New Jersey.
Mr. Gallego said Democrats still have strong support among Hispanics, given the party’s unexpected holds and success in states such as Texas.
He acknowledged, however, that the party must shore up its resources in Florida, where Republicans were able to make strong gains among Hispanic voters beyond more conservative Cuban Americans.
“Florida is going back to what it used to be, which is a very conservative Latino State,” Mr. Gallego told The Washington Times. “I think we have to go just fight it out down there and recruit some good candidates and eventually the Florida Republican Party is going to mess it up and we’ll have a good opening to try and bring them back on our side, but when we do it, we have to move fast.”
The Hispanic vote was mixed in its support this midterm cycle, with both parties taking credit for the success of their outreach efforts.
Despite historic levels of Hispanic support for GOP candidates, Democrats outperformed with Hispanic voters except in Florida.
Ms. Gluesenkamp Perez’s win was a victory for Democrats, where she flipped a district won by former President Donald Trump in Washington state.
Democrats also took out GOP Rep. Mayra Flores of Texas. She lost to incumbent Rep. Vicente Gonzalez.
Republicans, meanwhile, recruited new Hispanic members to broaden their conference, including bringing in Reps.-elect Monica De La Cruz of Texas and Anna Paulina Luna of Florida.
Ms. Escobar said abortion messaging boosted support of Hispanic women for Democrats.
“By far, the number one issue for Latina women in these races was women’s right to reproductive freedom and our Latinos know the threat that the Republican Party poses to our not just reproductive freedom, but our economic freedom,” Ms. Escobar said.
Rep.-elect Greg Casar of Texas echoed Mr. Gallego’s sentiment that GOP efforts fell short, given the numbers reached by his party.
“As the Republicans would have had it, they thought that today they’d be having a press conference talking about the Latino vote going to the right, and instead we’re here having a press conference with Yadira and Delia and Maxwell and Andrea and Rob and Marie and Robert,” Mr. Casar said.
Rep. Carlos Gimenez, Florida Republican, said he sees a backlash in the Hispanic community against “wokeness,” which is driving voters to the GOP.
“Here, we have awakened to ‘woke.’ We don’t actually believe in it, and it’s a large Hispanic community and a big shift to the right,” Mr. Gimenez said on Fox News.
