- Wed Nov 04, 2015 6:17 am
#64258
Uh oh...this is bad news for the Trump haters:
From the Washington Times
From the Washington Times
To hear political pundits tell it, Donald Trump has little chance to attract enough Hispanic voters to win the presidency in 2016 because of his plans to build a border wall and deport all illegal immigrants in America. Some pollsters and activists who have whipped up past Hispanic support for Republicans, however, see it differently.
They think Mr. Trump’s lasering in on the economy and his perceived competence in creating jobs will appeal to the one segment of Hispanics that matters most in elections: those who work and tend to vote. That’s because those voters fear illegal immigrants will compete for their jobs under the new Obama amnesty.
“This stuff you read about how Hispanics are going to run away from Trump in droves is a Northeastern myth,” said longtime presidential campaign adviser Mark Sanders.
“Most Hispanics here in East Texas are here legally, they vote, and they are hard-line opponents of illegal immigration,” said Mr. Sanders, a top adviser in Democrat Tony Sanchez’s 2002 campaign to unseat then-Gov. Rick Perry. “The only one they want is Trump — not Hillary, not Bernie. That’s the conundrum for Democrats.”
Mr. Sanders says Hispanics in East Texas “come here from rural backgrounds, from the lower end of the social and economic ladder. Most of their kids go to community colleges because it’s all their families can afford, and then go directly into the military. They have hard-core patriotism — just what Trump plays into,” Mr. Sanders added.
Whether Mr. Trump is saying he loves Hispanics or vowing to deport all 11 million or so illegal immigrants, it’s equally music to the ears of many Hispanic voters.
“I don’t care if he likes me or not as a Hispanic or Latino, as long he creates the jobs he promised,” said Carlo Maffatt, a Mexican immigrant who lives in Las Vegas and who did political liaison work in the Hispanic community for Republicans during the 2012 presidential election. “He is never going to take me out for a beer, so it doesn’t matter whether I like him or not either.
“The job of the president of the United Stats is to create jobs, not to be the friend of every American,” Mr. Maffatt said.
Mr. Maffatt said recent Hispanic immigrants have plenty of reason to favor Mr. Trump: They don’t want new immigrants, especially illegal immigrants, competing for “a job for whatever anyone will give them.”
“When we are new here and desperately trying to make a living, we will charge less than white Anglo-Saxons. We eventually improve our lot, but then when we have more new immigrants coming in, [and] we’re the first to lose our jobs because they’re willing to work for less money,” he said.
Admittedly, Mr. Maffatt’s analysis runs counter to what many TV pollsters and pundits have said in recent weeks. One national poll this fall had Mr. Trump’s unfavorability among Hispanics at a death-rattling 82 percent.
“Polls show an incredibly low Hispanic propensity to vote for Trump,” veteran Colorado-based pollster Floyd Ciruli told The Washington Times.
One reason may be a form of political correctness.
While Mr. Ciruli doesn’t expect Mr. Trump to break any Hispanic voter turnout records, he does believe the current polls are undermeasuring working-class Hispanics who may vote in 2016.
