If there is any proof that the Republican brand is damage, this article is the smoking gun. They interview various Hispanics about voting for Marco Rubio. Many expressed they would or look at him. What is holding back some of these Hispanics, is the bad image of the Republican Party.
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Sorry, Washington superstar, Time magazine coverboy and hip-hop maven, she’s never heard of you.
“Marco Rubio?” said 28-year-old Memorie Annese, taking her daughters to a public library in this city tucked amid soaring mountains and the Rio Grande.
But the Mexican-American, school bus-driving union member who voted for President Barack Obama didn’t hesitate when asked if she would consider a Republican candidate with immigrant roots.
“Heck yeah — if he’s good,” Annese said. “There’s a connection.”[….]
Interviews with voters in Hispanic-rich New Mexico, which Obama won twice, and Texas, a Republican bastion inching Democratic, suggest that Rubio could inspire goodwill and pride among minorities who shunned the GOP in the past two presidential elections.
“Having a president who is Hispanic, I can’t even explain it,” said Esmirna Corona, a college student in El Paso. “If people see Rubio is Hispanic, they’ll take time to check him out. With Mitt Romney, I was like no. Then I looked at his position on immigration and was like definitely not.”[….]
Voters who say they would be drawn to Rubio through culture insist it would take more than that to actually pull the lever. They consistently describe the GOP as out of touch, the party for the rich — qualities reinforced by the stiff, multimillionaire Romney.
“We identify with Democrats because they are empathetic to our needs. With the budget, the first thing Republicans try to cut are the social programs,” said Corona, 20, the El Paso college student, praising what Head Start did for her as a child. She said her peers disagree with Republicans on a range of social issues, including gay marriage
[….]
Honestly, I would consider him because he’s Hispanic,” said Julio Sanchez, 19, a business marketing major at the University of Texas at El Paso. “I could always see myself voting Republican. The reason I’m Democrat is that’s the way I was raised.”
“It’s ingrained in us,” said Gabriel Lira, 24, who was sitting at a table in the same coffee shop as Sanchez. “Growing up, it was ’Republicans rich, Democrats help the middle class.’ I’m interested in having a Hispanic president, but if he’s going to be against everything I want, obviously I’m not going to vote for him.”
The Republican Party really has an image problem. They never explain how their policies would help the Middle Class while it doesn’t help that the last two Republican Presidents were economic failures. The perception that Hispanics have of Republicans is part of a larger image problem the GOP has with the country as a whole.
Tags: Hispanics, Marco Rubio
