GOP needs 40% of Latino votes to win White House in 2016, Republican pollster says
*So there’s a magic number, 40%. Here’s what gets my head spinning about this: Smart, survivalist politics says the GOP understands it needs only a specific number of Latino votes to win. And they’re also under the impression that they’ve achieved that number in the past, all they need to do is replicate that effort. So it’s not about doing right by Latino voters, it’s about dusting off an old playbook to get the number they need. But that playbook is flawed. The GOP likes to flaunt a 44% Latino vote for George W. Bush – that number is untrue, it’s based on a flawed methodology. Bush actually received closer to 34 – 36% of the Latino vote, short of the needed 40%. If this is the myth the GOP plans to believe going into 2016 … VL
Do a lot more and do it faster.
That’s the strategy that one Republican pollster working with potential presidential candidate and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said the GOP needs to do if it wants to win the crucial Latino vote in 2016.
“A Republican nominee is going to need to be somewhere in the mid-40s, or better, among Hispanic voters,” pollster Whit Ayres said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, adding that Rubio is “extraordinarily talented” and could be “transformational” in expanding the GOP’s appeal with Latinos.
While Rubio hasn’t officially said that he will be running for president in 2016 – the only person to do that so far is Texas freshman Sen. Ted Cruz – Rubio has set a date for April 13 when he is suspected to declare his candidacy.
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