It’s early in the process, but Spanish-language U.S. media is seeing former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a likely candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, as one of their own.
Bush is a fluent Spanish speaker and married to a Mexican, leading some Spanish-language media outlets to identify him as a “Latino” candidate, even though he’s very much white.
In late April, Telemundo ran an Associated Press article translated to Spanish and said Bush can “express himself in English and Spanish in declarations that [highlight] his deep ties with the Hispanic culture.”
Because Bush is an outspoken supporter of immigration reform — the kind that would grant some legal protection to illegal immigrants currently in the country — Noticias MundoFox in February said he’s “one of the Republican candidates better positioned to attract the Latino vote…”
On Univision’s “Al Punto” in January, Jorge Ramos, the most high-profile Spanish-speaking news anchor in the U.S., declared the 2016 GOP primary “historic” because Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz, both of Latino decent, are in the running. “And Jeb, if we want to turn him into a Latino, too,” Ramos added.
The Spain-based newspaper El País described Bush as uniquely “capable” of appealing to the Latino vote, which is “more decisive in the presidential elections, and with which the Republican Party has a hard time connecting.”
Not every Latino Republican has necessarily had the same favorable coverage.
Univision, in particular, has often been critical of Marco Rubio, who is Cuban-American and also speaks fluent Spanish. And the network’s owner, Haim Saban, is an outspoken supporter of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
