Can GOP count on Latino vote?

NBC News ^ | March 21, 2005 | Mark Murray

[nickcarraway]

Maybe it’s the Texas-twangy Spanish he speaks, or his pro-immigrant views, or formerly governing a state that shares a border with Mexico, or even his Latino-heartthrob nephew. But whatever the reason, George W. Bush seems to have been more popular with Latino voters than any other Republican presidential candidate before him.

In 1996, two years after Republican Gov. Pete Wilson of California championed Proposition 187, which barred illegal immigrants from receiving health and social services and which infuriated the Latino community, Bob Dole received support from just 21 percent of Latino voters, according to exit polls. But in 2000, Bush increased that amount to 35 percent. And last year, exit polls showed him winning the support of 44 percent of Latino voters — although a later analysis by NBC News lowered that figure to a still-impressive 40 percent.

That standing will certainly be on display Wednesday, when Bush meets at his Crawford ranch with Mexican President Vicente Fox to discuss, among other things, Bush’s plan to grant legal status to millions of undocumented workers who live in this country. The meeting will also give Bush another opportunity to practice his Spanish and call Fox “un amigo de mio y tambien un amigo de los Estados Unidos” (translation: a friend of mine and also a friend of the United States), as he did when the two men toured Ohio in 2001.

Growing numbers But can future Republicans duplicate Bush’s success with Latinos? It’s a question, so far, that few political observers have asked. But its political importance shouldn’t be understated: According to the William C. Velasquez Institute, a Latino thinktank, there were nearly 10 million Latino registered voters in last year’s election who cast approximately 7 million votes, and it projects that those numbers will double in the next 16 years.

[jackbenimble]

My mother was born in Cuba. She was also a delegate to Barry Goldwater's Republican convention so I was raised and have voted Republican all my life ... until the last election.

President Bush's hispandering to illegals is disgusting. This hispanic voted for the Conservative Party in the last election and will never again support any Republicans who doesn't stand for secure borders.

[JohnnyZ]

Can GOP count on Latino vote?

No, obviously they're gonna have to fight for them. Morons.

[A CA Guy]

I think the borders are going to explode personally, but I think Bush is doing what he is far more regarding the economy of Mexico than for illegals.

Mexico is a corrupt government that really is a bad third world type nation.
There is the worry in Mexico of violence due to starvation and the illegals here are about all that are preventing them from another revolution IMO.

I'm with you on the issue though and being from a state where we lose at least 10 billion a year, I say get them out.