Jose A. Moreno Immigration Law Blog on Lawyers.com

The New Political Landscape

Wednesday, November 7, 2012 by Jose A. Moreno

Photo of Jose A. Moreno
Hispanic voters turned out in record numbers on election day 2012 to support with resounding unity President Obama and the Democratic party's political positions.  The Republican party's failure to press immigration reform and Romney's disconnect with the Hispanic voters tanked any possibility for victory.  Republican policy must change to cater to a larger percentage of Latinos. An impreMedia-Latino Decisions poll released Tuesday as an alternative to exit polls found Obama had won 75 percent of Latino voters nationwide, while exit polls found him with around 70 percent Latino support, with figures likely to change throughout the night as tallies come in from the West Coast.

Polling shows that Latino voters not only felt they aligned better with Obama on many issues, including jobs and the economy, they also felt the Democratic Party seemed to actually care about getting their votes.

The country is becoming more diverse in general, with a growing Latino population and an even faster-growing Asian population. Those demographic changes will spell trouble for the Republican Party if it remains on in its current trajectory, among Latino voters in particular.

Immigration isn't the top issue for most -- jobs and the economy rank higher -- but it remains an important one, and for many Latino voters it's something of a litmus test. If a politician seems to disrespect immigrants or Latinos overall, or if the party seems uninterested in winning their votes, the support isn't going to come. This year, it didn't.  Exit polls place Romney at winning 29 percent of the Latino vote, which is lower than Republican candidates received in 2008, 2004, and 2000. The lowest percentage of Latino voters won by a Republican was in 1996, when Bob Dole garnered only 21 percent of Latinos to former President Bill Clinton's record 72 percent--An Ominous Sign for the future success of Republican Politicians.

 
Posted at 13:44 PM
Topic: Immigration
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