Republicans Push for Latino Vote
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Comstock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Despite President Obama’s advantage with Latino voters, boosted after his immigration announcement last Friday, Republicans are not ceding the Latino electorate, focusing instead on how the country’s sluggish economy and high unemployment rate have been especially hard for Latinos.
Just days after Obama announced his administration would not seek to deport up to 800,000 children of illegal immigrants, the Republican National Committee came out with a new web video in both English and Spanish, and a research piece that hit the president for the nation’s economic problems and how they had disproportionately hurt Latinos.
Over the voices of news coverage telling the viewer, “Latino unemployment is in the double digits,” the video shows images of both the president and struggling families.
“After four years of President Obama, our economy isn’t better,” a graphic reads before these statistics appear over a woman looking through her bills: “Hispanic unemployment skyrocketed to 11 percent” and “2.3 million more Hispanics in poverty.”
The video says more Latinos are likely to be uninsured, before it ends with a clear message: “While Obama plays politics, Hispanics are suffering in the Obama economy.”
In a nod to the hand-to-hand combat for every vote in this race, the RNC and the Romney campaign will continue to go after Latino voters despite the president’s polling advantage.
A Bloomberg poll released on Tuesday surveyed likely voters after the president’s move, and 64 percent agreed with Obama’s policy, while 30 percent disagreed. The survey did leave voters divided along party lines, with 86 percent of Democrats favoring the measure while 56 percent of Republicans opposed it.
Other polls have shown a nearly double-digit jump in support for Obama among Hispanics since he made the change, and the president was already doing well among the country’s largest minority. An ABC News/Washington Post poll earlier this spring revealed 73 percent of Latinos backed Obama, compared with 26 percent for Romney.
The new policy is similar to the Dream Act, supported by Obama, but rejected by Republicans in Congress. It will offer temporary work permits to young illegal immigrants who were brought to this country by their parents.
Both the president and the presumptive GOP nominee will continue their outreach to the Latino community this week. They both will address the annual National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials conference in Orlando, Fla., with Romney speaking on Thursday and Obama on Friday.
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