Hispanics Won’t Turn Texas Blue

*Interesting GOP perspective on Texas Latinos and Latino politics. Thorburn’s numbers make sense, what doesn’t is his shortsightedness. Latinos in Texas will continue to grow in numbers, education, wealth and maturity. Soon, the Texas political landscape will change, it’s inevitable.  Thorburn’s take is short-term GOP solace. Thoughts? VL

By Wayne Thorburn, Politico

You don’t have to live in Texas to hear the incessant reminders by demographers and political pundits that the Lone Star State is on track to become majority Hispanic. By the time of the 2010 census, Texas had already become a “majority-minority” state, with minorities outnumbering Anglos by some two million—and with Hispanics alone accounting for 37.6 percent of residents. Although projections vary, within the next 10 to 20 years, Texas will likely have a Hispanic majority.

You’ve also probably heard that this Hispanic surge is turning Texas, which has been a reliably Republican state in presidential politics since 1980, blue. Hispanics tend to vote Democrat (Obama took some 63 percent of the Hispanic vote in Texas in 2012), and the Texas Democratic Party is taking full advantage, initiating a major drive to register Hispanic voters and recruiting candidates who can identify with this growing ethnic group. Two years ago, the state Democratic Party chose its first Hispanic state chairman, a former county judge from the Rio Grande Valley. Much talk in Democratic political circles involves the Hispanic Castro twins—Julian, the U.S. secretary of Housing & Urban Development, and Joaquin, the U.S. congressman from San Antonio. Meanwhile, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis is busy trying to win back the Hispanic voters she lost in the party’s primary when 27 counties with large Hispanic populations voted for her underfunded and unknown opponent. Davis has made more than three dozen campaign stops in South Texas, where Hispanics are already a majority of the population, and devoted nearly $300,000 for spots on Spanish-language television channels.

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