Hispanic Voters Tired of Dems ‘Ignoring Faith, Family, and Hardworking Individuals’: Congressman
“Stunning,” “surprising,” “impressive,” and “significant.” Those are some of the words that have been used by experts and analysts in response to President-elect Donald Trump’s immense gain of rural and Latino voters. “Why is that so impressive?” asked CNN’s senior data reporter Harry Enten. Because in “the last 52 years, all the way back since 1972 … I believe that this is the first time that a Republican candidate for president has carried Latino men.”
Enten went on to address how Trump secured a 29-point lead among Latino voters in Florida. But “he didn’t just do it in one state,” Enten added, “he did it across the nation.” Edison Research estimated that roughly 54% of male Hispanic voters supported Trump, which almost a 20-point jump from 36% in the 2020 election.
According to BBC News, this shift is also noteworthy because these are “some of the very voters that Democrats once relied on.” But what causes such a large wave? Some Democrats have claimed it was due to “misinformation and disinformation.” Co-host of “The View” Sunny Hostin said it was because of targeted “misogyny” against Vice President Kamala Harris. But Frank Luntz, an American consultant and pollster, doesn’t agree with these theories.
“I don’t accept that,” he told CNN anchor Boris Sanchez. “[I]n the end, the Latino voters, despite what had happened in Madison Square Garden, despite that horrific joke about Puerto Rico, Trump still did better than any Republican ever among the Latino vote. To me, that’s the most significant story of the campaign.” Even with the Left’s attempts “to demonize him … in the end, they said, ‘You know what? There’s more for us in Trump than there is in Harris.’” This also comes in conjunction with Edison Research finding that a large number of Hispanics considered the economy (40%) and immigration (70%) to be their top issues.
Still, the questions linger: Do Hispanics agree with this analysis? The numbers may reflect it, but what are they saying? To provide insight, Rep. Greg Lopez (R-Colo.) joined Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on Monday’s episode of “Washington Watch.” According to the congressman, a lot of this shift of Hispanic votes from Democrat to Republican started with the realization that “the Democratic Party was totally ignoring the values of the Hispanic community — the values of faith, the values of family, the values of community, and hard-working individuals.”
Lopez argued that Democrats at large “truly were destroying and tearing the fabric of our values. They were being disrespectful with all the issues that they were doing to attack our families, to undermine our children.” This caused the Hispanic vote, Lopez emphasized, to seek change. “We sometimes believe that our vote doesn’t matter, and the Democratic Party … believed that we would always hold on to that mantra that … Republicans are for the rich, and the Democrats are for the poor.” But “they forgot that our community is thriving. We are becoming an economic influence. We have political power now.”
As such, he added, “we decided that we need to find someone that will put people over politics. Too many politicians put politics over people, and the Hispanic community truly believes that government should always put people over politics. And I think that’s what you saw in this historic realignment of the Hispanic vote going to the Republican Party.” Concerning this “historic realignment,” Perkins asked, “Where does the concern about law and order factor into that decision to back a party that wants to enforce the law at the border?” For Lopez, it’s simple. “[W]e’re strong in community. We want our children to have safe streets just like everybody else. And we as Americans do not want the border open.”
He elaborated further: “Hispanic Americans want the border closed. We want people to follow the law. We want them to get here legally, just like most Hispanics did.” In fact, Lopez explained how a vast majority of Hispanics “don’t appreciate the government saying, ‘You can come and we’ll deal with it later.’” For those who entered the country legally, Lopez noted, “We’ve worked hard. We’ve tried to build and integrate into our communities.” But now, people are coming in “quickly” and illegally and “getting all the benefits that a citizen gets.” Ultimately, “it’s really hard to tell the difference now between the benefits of a United States citizen and the benefits of an illegal alien.” So, when it comes to border and immigration policies, “the Hispanic community said, ‘Enough.’ We’re going to go with President Trump. He was closing down the border. He was making our community secure.”
Not only do Trump’s policies better reflect Hispanics’ views on immigration, but also on the issues of life, family, and faith, Lopez explained. “[The Left will] try to tell our children that God makes mistakes, that a Hispanic boy, if he wants to be a girl, we can just call him a girl or vice versa.” However, “when I talk to [the] Hispanic community … I let them know that this is what they’re teaching in schools,” and “they get very upset because we are strong believers in our Lord,” he underscored. “We’re strong believers in what the Bible teaches us.”
Lopez contended that Hispanics don’t appreciate when “the Democratic Party … [tries] to confuse our children” or “when they try to undermine the definition of marriage. We also do not appreciate what they’re doing when it comes to abortion. … [W]e believe that every life is precious, and every child is a gift. And when they tell us that … it’s women’s health care, we want them to realize that … it’s killing babies. That’s the truth.” The congressman emphasized that these realities have all worked together in this “shifted … mindset of the Hispanic community as they realize [Democrats are] not teaching biblical values. They’re not talking about our faith and our family. They’re talking about everything else.”
Moving forward, Perkins asked, could “this alignment … be permanent?” It could be permanent, Lopez responded, “if the Republican Party does the right thing” by paying attention to the Hispanic community. “[F]or too long, the Republican Party has been ignoring the Hispanic vote because they always believed that it was going to go [to] Democrat[s].” But now, he underscored, “the Republican Party has an opportunity to reach out into the Hispanic community,” which is “why I’m calling on President Trump to put a … Hispanic man or a Hispanic woman onto [his] cabinet, because we helped them get there.”
“It’s important for him to recognize that and … allow us to be a part of the solution,” Lopez concluded.
Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.