‘Hispanics are Republicans’: Senate GOP campaign arm touts poll to prove growing support with key group.

The NRSC, pointing to fresh polling, argues increasing support from Hispanics is poised to help make it happen.

“If you look at these poll numbers, Hispanics all across the county are Republicans,” NRSC Chairman Sen. Rick Scott told reporters Thursday during a joint news conference with fellow Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio. “If Republicans reach out to them, we’re going to win.”

“Hispanic voters are small business owners and workers who came to America because the place they came from was bad,” added Rubio, who is up for reelection in 2022. “They don’t consider themselves victims. In fact, they consider this country a place of extraordinary opportunity.”

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Democrats still win 70% of the Hispanic vote nationally, on average. Support from this cohort was critical to President Joe Biden’s win in Arizona in 2020, the first by a Democratic nominee there since 1996. Hispanic voters also were a big part of Democratic victories in Senate races in 2018, when the party picked up seats in Arizona and Nevada, and in 2020, when Democrats won Arizona’s other Senate seat.

Democratic insiders conceded the party has work to do to improve its performance with the range of Hispanic communities in Florida. But Democrats say that Republicans tend to focus on broad concepts that poll well to promote the idea that their prospects with Hispanic voters are on the rise while glossing over issues that continue to drive the lion’s share of this cohort into the arms of the Democratic Party.

Immigration is one such hurdle, they say, pointing to the Republicans split over whether to grant legal status to “DREAMers,” illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children. Another issue Democrats claim works in their favor is congressional Republicans’ opposition to Biden’s coronavirus aid bill, the American Rescue Plan, which enjoys broad support across the spectrum, including the backing of 76% of Hispanics, according to an April poll by the Democratic firm Navigators.

“A fake poll from the NRSC won’t change Senate Republicans’ record of attacking Latinos’ access to affordable care, their refusal to support DREAMers, and their unanimous vote against a coronavirus relief package that has provided direct economic relief to millions of Latino families and small businesses,” said Jazmin Vargas, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

“Latinos, will hold every Senate Republican accountable for their toxic agenda in November next year,” she added.

However, it is undeniable Republicans made substantial gains with Hispanics in 2020. Former President Donald Trump improved his performance with Hispanic voters nationally and in contested states.

In Texas, for example, Trump flipped Zapata County, a majority-Hispanic county along the Mexican border that had not voted a Republican for president in 100 years. The former president’s economic populism — support for lower taxes, opposition to “socialism,” and even his hawkish views on border security, resonated with Hispanics and helped lift Republicans running for office down-ballot. Those results are reflected in the NRSC’s new poll.

• When asked whether they agreed that “free market capitalism is the best form of government because it gives people the freedom to work and achieve their potential” or if they agreed that “socialism is the best form of government because it is more fair and equitable to working-class people,” 63% of Hispanic voters in the eight battlegrounds surveyed answered “capitalism.” Just 17% answered “socialism.” Twenty percent did not know or declined to answer.
• Among Mexican Americans, who lean Democratic, 57% said capitalism versus 21% who answered socialism. Among Cubans, who lean Republican, the answers broke down 73% capitalism and 10% socialism. For Puerto Ricans, it was 61% capitalism versus 16% socialism. South Americans preferred capitalism over socialism 74% to 9%, and Central Americans and Dominicans sided with capitalism over socialism 59% to 23%.
• Sixty-seven percent of Hispanics agreed with the statement: “I’m very concerned that America is declining and my kids won’t have the same opportunities me and my family came here to find.” Fifty-eight percent agreed that “too many people in this country no longer want to work and are happy to just live off of government assistance, including 37% of self-described Democrats, 57% of independents, 85% of Republicans, and 53% of Hispanics who live in urban areas.
• Just 26% of Hispanics strongly or somewhat favored “allowing illegal immigrants to receive the same welfare and unemployment benefits as citizens,” while 69% were strongly or somewhat opposed. Eighty percent agreed that “public schools are failing.”
• On immigration, 72% agreed that “we should do what is necessary to control our Southern border and stop the surge of illegal immigration happening right now,” with 23% disagreeing. A majority of subgroups agreed with that statement, including 69% of Mexican Americans, 81% of Cubans, 75% of Puerto Ricans, 72% of South Americans, and 68% of Central Americans.

The NRSC released the poll conducted in late April, and it was publicized the last week of May. The committee surveyed 1,200 Hispanic voters in the eight targeted states, breaking down results according to particular Hispanic heritage: Central American/Dominican, Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, and South American. The margin of error was 2.82 percentage points.

Disclosure: The wife of the author works as an adviser to Rick Scott.