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Puerto Rico’s economic crisis meant Jeffrey Rondon, 25, struggled to find even part-time work, so he recently joined the growing exodus from his Caribbean island to Florida. Now he holds a full-time restaurant job and something that could upend the 2016 presidential election — the right to vote in Florida, the biggest of all swing states. “It’s important to vote and be heard — it’s a privilege,” said Rondon, who is one of thousands of Puerto Ricans who have moved to Florida in the past year.

It's become one of his loudest, most frequently repeated boasts. As polls have shown him surging to the top of the Republican pack, Donald Trump has made a point of asserting his particular strength among Hispanic voters. "I have so many Hispanics, and they love me," Trump said during a speech in Laconia, New Hampshire, last week. "And interestingly, we just got from the state of Nevada a poll [that] just came out, and Trump won with a tremendous amount. And the second line was, 'Takes Hispanic vote in a landslide,' and I've been saying that. I'm going to win...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says Republicans won’t win the White House if candidates don’t campaign in “every nook and cranny” of the country, especially in Latino and African-American communities. The Republican presidential contender made his comments Thursday during a town hall meeting in New Hampshire. They come as businessman Donald Trump’s hardline rhetoric on immigration continues to dominate the GOP primary race. …

One of the explanations for Donald Trump’s surging poll numbers goes like this: The base doesn’t trust Republican leaders on immigration. The manifestation of this has been support for a man who tells it like it is.The problem with this is that the immigration schism on the right is largely about rhetoric. Almost everybody agrees we must secure the border, and even the most hawkish anti-immigration reform advocates won’t admit they want to deport the 11 million, or so, illegals. There are differences of opinion on whether to allow for a pathway to citizenship or to legalize them, but almost...

Donald Trump’s insult of John McCain’s war record on Saturday has led to nearly universal condemnation from his Republican primary adversaries. More importantly, it might also be the well-anticipated moment when Trump’s popularity in the GOP race comes crashing down. Whatever happens next in the campaign, though, it’s fair to say that the damage to Trump’s national personal standing and miniature media empire has already been done. That happened the instant he entered the race by attacking Mexican immigrants as “criminals” and “rapists,” and it happened thanks largely to an unprecedented grassroots response by Latino-Americans, Latino immigrants, and the broader...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Donald Trump “is appealing to a segment I’ll just label racist,” says Gary Johnson, a former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico and the 2012 Libertarian Party presidential candidate. “It exists and it’s out there." "I don’t want to have anything to do with it,” says Johnson. “It embarrasses me. The electorate will paint the entire Republican Party with a broad brush as a result of Trump and it won’t be positive.” Johnson started the 2012 campaign as a Republican before switching to the LP and pulling 1.2 million votes and 1 percent of ballots cast in the general...

With his angry rants against undocumented immigrants, Donald Trump is a stark reminder of the GOP’s terrible problem with Latino voters. In short, Latinos don’t like—or trust—the Republican Party. But Trump also illustrates a second, more complicated problem. As long as his rhetoric has a place in Republican politics—as long as it has defenders—it won’t just alienate Latinos. It will offend and turn off voters who have conservative ideas and beliefs but won’t sanction or support anti-immigrant sentiment. Before looking at this other side to the “Latino problem,” it’s worth examining the first one. In the past two presidential elections,...

When Donald Trump described Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug smugglers last month, Latinos took to social media to express their outrage and urge businesses to sever ties with the billionaire presidential candidate. In short order, more than 10 organizations canceled their deals with Trump, in what Latino activists are calling an unprecedented recognition of their economic clout. Latino spending power will hit $1.5 trillion this year, up 50 percent from 2010, according to the Nielsen Co, which analyzes consumer spending trends. At an average age of 27, the Hispanic population is a decade younger than the U.S. average and...

Scott Walker has yet to launch his presidential campaign, but the Wisconsin governor is already talking both privately and publicly about a running mate: Marco Rubio. This comes as news to Rubio, the freshman Florida senator who is running his own campaign to be president. The constant prodding from Walker has become an irritant between the two GOP rivals, neither of whom knows the other all that well. The goal for Walker is clear: to calm the nerves of Republican power brokers who love his conservative message and anti-union pedigree but who worry about the appeal of a white male...

Unless, you've been living under a rock watching only Fox news in a cave, you haven't felt the wrath of Latinos and Hispanics in social media, a raging "radio bemba," the term for Latino word of mouth. Once adored and imitated by many, today, Donald Trump, is hated and scolded by major media moguls and celebrities alike for his anti-Mexican comments. Former Miss USA co-host Roselyn Sánchez and Christian De La Fuente have publicly condemned Donald Trump for his behavior and have withdrawn their support from the competition. Natalie La Rose will no longer be performing at the Miss USA...

Hispanic leaders are warning of harm to Republican White House hopes unless the party's presidential contenders do more to condemn Donald Trump, a businessman turned presidential candidate who's refusing to apologize for calling Mexican immigrants rapists and drug dealers. Trump's comments, delivered in his announcement speech last month, have haunted the GOP for much of the last two weeks and dominated Spanish-language media....

A leftover from Friday’s candidate forum in New Hampshire via Eliana Johnson. I had a sense of deja vu watching this clip, and not just because I’ve blogged roughly a thousand Rubio statements on immigration over the past two years. Didn’t he … give almost this exact answer to Bob Schieffer on “Face the Nation” back in April, up to and including his endorsement of a path to citizenship as the final step in a three-stage immigration reform process? Come to think of it, he did! I wrote about it at the time. In fact, as far as I know,...

There are two Hispanic Americans campaigning for the GOP nomination for the presidency, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. They have many similarities; they are both US senators, Cruz from Texas and Rubio from Florida. Both are sons of Cuban immigrants, both are 44 years of age and both are social conservatives. From all indications these two men will rise to the top 10 contenders list. Regardless of whoever seizes the GOP nomination, their struggle will be for the ever elusive Hispanic vote. Statistics are hard to dismiss in an ever growing Hispanic population. Mitt Romney lost in 2012 and...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie faulted his party Wednesday for its unwelcoming tone at times to minority voters. In a speech to a Latino Coalition small business conference, the potential Republican presidential contender also boasted about getting 51 percent of the Hispanic vote in his re-election as governor. Christie portrays himself as the kind of Republican who can attract females, blacks, Hispanics and other voters who are normally drawn to Democrats. …

Smash the patriarchy! New York police allegedly arrested two men for “manspreading” (sitting with their legs far apart) on the subway, according to a report entitled “That’s How They Get You” released by the Police Reform Organizing Project. “On a recent visit to the arraignment part in Brooklyn’s criminal court, PROP volunteers observed that police officers had arrested two Latino men on the charge of ‘man spreading’ on the subway, presumably because they were taking up more than one seat and therefore inconveniencing other riders,” the report states.

The field of Republicans contending for their presidential nomination does not present grandeur.; in truth, it's a pretty weak roster. Take a look at the top names: --Jeb Bush (actually John Ellis, btw): lots of money, lots of friends, fading fast. His death knell was the inability to answer the most obvious question a three year old could have predicted. And conservatives now think poorly of his brother for spending too much (doughnut hole anyone?), and for the Iraq nation building fiasco. The dream of another Bush presidency is over. --Scott Walker: the last guy who claimed that running a...

Latin Post presents "Turnout," a series featuring leading Latino politicians, government leaders and advocacy groups discussing and debating the most important issues facing the Latino voting bloc. Listen to the Unedited "Turnout" Interview with People for the American Way's Coordinator for Political Campaigns Carlos Sanchez:(AUDIO-AND-VIDEO-AT-LINK)More than two-thirds of the U.S. Latino electorate live in six states -- Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Texas -- but one progressive advocacy organization has been working on having anti-Latino and anti-immigrant representatives accountable and heard for Latinos across the country, especially for the presidential election season. With people entering their names for...

On Saturday, Fausta’s Blog posted an interview from Bloomberg TV that slipped under the radar in the last few weeks, wherein Mark Halperin got uncomfortably weird and painfully white while interviewing Republican Presidential candidate Ted Cruz. Here is Digitas clip of the segment. It is a comic tragedy unto itself. Fausta, in the dangerous state of “outraged while Puerto Rican,” had a terrific rant that ended, appropriately, with bésame el culo. Kiss my … The absurdity of the situation is outweighed only by how disgusting it is.

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...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a likely candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, speaks Spanish in a new video celebrating Cinco de Mayo. The video was released by Bush's political action committee, which described it as "a message for the entire Hispanic population in the United States, but especially those of Mexican origin." Bush is fluent in Spanish. "Cinco de Mayo is an honorable date when Mexico, our neighbor, bravely defended itself against a foreign intervention," Bush said. "Here in the U.S., Cinco de Mayo has become a day where we celebrate our ties with Mexico and the great...