McCain Losing Hispanics In Record Numbers
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, McCain, Race
I don’t know if you could point to another Republican who has been as sympathetic to the ideas of immigration reform. And yet McCain is floundering when it comes to this group.
Polls show Obama winning the broadest support from Latino voters of any Democrat in a decade, while McCain is struggling to reach 30 percent, closer to Senator Bob Dole’s dismal 1996 result than to Bush’s historic 40% four years ago.McCain seems to have wound up with the worst of both worlds: He appears to be getting no credit from Latino voters for his past support for immigration reform, while carrying the baggage of other Republicans’ hostility to illegal immigration. [...]
“I feel bad for McCain,” said Sam Rodriguez, the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and a prominent supporter of George W. Bush in 2004, who is neutral this year. “We find ourselves between the proverbial rock and the hard place. We really like John McCain. We really don’t like the Republican Party.”
And Hillary said that Obama was going to have a problem getting the Hispanic vote?
This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, McCain, Race. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
What strikes me a funny is the assumption that Hispanic voters are categorically for the hilariously-worded “immigration reform.” Maybe they don’t like his tax policy, or health policy, or fiscal policy, or security policy. These “Hispanic voters” are Americans, not illegals trying to leech off of “the wealthier country to the north.”
October 10th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
I have the solution!
Run the Ayers ads in Spanish!
That’ll take care of it!
October 10th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Exiled Independent is right. Hispanic voters are overwhelmingly lower-income or middle-class, and a lot of them live in California, which has really been hard hit by the economic downturn.
On the other hand, there is a feeling (often accurate) that the anti-illegal immigration sentiment in the GOP is a cover for ethnic prejudice against Hispanics in general, including those who are citizens.
October 10th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
There is also a lot of religious and social conservatism in the Latino community. On average, probably more so than any other ethnic group — including white Protestants. Unfortunately for their electoral prospects, the Republicans as a group have preferred to emphasize their anti-immigrant aspects.