GOP Hispanic Outreach Falls Flat

“he Washington Post reports today that despite the Republican Party’s rosy rhetoric about their outreach to Hispanic voters and the inroads they’ve made, Hispanics are in fact now overwhelmingly rejecting the failed leadership of President Bush and the Republican Congress. The results come less than a month after Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman told an audience of Latino elected officials from around the country that reaching out to Hispanics was “vitally important” and claimed that “a Republican Party that does not reach out to Hispanics cannot win … and a Republican Party that does not reach out to Hispanics does not deserve to win.” [Washington Post, 7/20/2006; Ken Mehlman remarks at NALEO, 6/22/2006].

The report details a new poll that shows that although Bush “had boosted the Republican share of the overall Hispanic vote to 40 percent in 2004, with almost all his gains coming among the Spanish-speaking voters,” today Spanish speakers, roughly half of the Hispanic voting population, would choose the Democrat “59 percent to 23 percent — far better than the 52 percent to 48 percent showing Kerry achieved among Spanish speakers in 2004.” [Washington Post, 7/20/2006]. “

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