As Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney tries to reach out to Hispanic voters, the Democratic grip on the Hispanic vote is puzzling to some given that Republicans and Hispanic voters have key conservative values in common,
USA Today reported.
Maricruz MaGowan, who has been living in America for 25 years, cannot understand why Hispanics vote for Democrats.
“I find it very difficult to understand why it is that we don't have more Hispanics voting for Republicans,” MaGowan, 49, a Maryland economist and Bolivia native, told the paper. “Our values are so similar to the values of traditional families in Latin America.” She is volunteering for the Romney campaign.
Another Romney campaign volunteer, Marta Saltus, whose parents fled Argentina in the 1950s, takes the same tack.
“We are all conservative — socially conservative, fiscally conservative — we believe in individual responsibility; we work hard; we don't want food stamps,” Saltus, 46, told the paper.
But there is a huge, undeniable gap between Republicans and Hispanics. In 2008, President Barack Obama won 67 percent of the Hispanic vote, USA Today reported, and has a commanding 70-22 lead over Romney.
As a result, the
Republican National Committee dispatched Hispanic outreach coordinators to six swing states to try to make some inroads among Hispanic voters, USA Today reported.
“We’ve had 42 months of unemployment over 8 percent. And for Hispanics, it's 2 points above that,” Luis Luna, 56, a Cuban-American told the paper. “Invariably, people will say, ‘It’s not working now; I think the Republicans will do a better job.’”
Though the GOP and Hispanics align on social issues, polls indicate that Republican positions on immigration, tax cuts, and less government involvement are holding them back, Matt Barretto, co-founder of Latino Decisions, a polling firm that studies Hispanic voters, told USA Today.
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