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Opportunities for Republicans Among Hispanics

By Gary Andres

A new Resurgent Republic poll released today finds a host of opportunities for Republicans among this fast growing group of Americans.

In an article summarizing the results of the survey, Ed Goes and Leslie Sanchez (both Resurgent Republic advisory board members) underscore the importance of this growing demographic group of Americans.

It is widely expected that the 2010 Census will show the U.S. Hispanic population continues to be our nation’s largest, fastest growing minority group, surpassing the present totals of 47 million people or over 15 percent of the population.

The poll finds Hispanics care a lot about fiscal policy issues. And despite historically aligning with Democrats, they now side more with a host of GOP messages when it comes to spending and the deficit. Goeas and Sanchez write: 

On the economy, reckless government spending and record federal deficits lay the groundwork for Republicans to increase their standing with Hispanic voters, 50 percent of whom believe the nation is on the wrong track. Democrat leaders boldly embrace an $800 billion-plus shovel-ready stimulus, yet Hispanic voters say it is not working and that any unspent funds should be used to reduce the deficit, 51 to 43 percent.
When asked if the federal government should spend more to help the economy recover or spend less to help reduce the budget deficit, Hispanic voters support spending less by a margin of 54 to 38 percent.

Despite supporting  Barack Obama by a large 67 -31 percent margin in 2008, many Hispanics now express some buyer’s remorse. Goeas and Sanchez write:

For all the high expectations and promise of the Obama presidency, only 15 percent believe the situation for Hispanics is better compared to a year ago. While a strong majority (61 percent) believe the situation for Hispanics is about the same, 20 percent believe it’s worse.

Goeas and Sanchez conclude their analysis by pointing to national security and fiscal policy issues as the areas of greatest opportunity for Republicans.

Disenchantment with many of the policies of President Obama and the Democratic Congress has caused Hispanic voters to be more open to persuasion from Republicans. Embracing commonality with Hispanic voters on fiscal and national security issues could reshape the long-term political narrative in a significant way

Read the full results of the Resurgent Republic survey here.

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