Texas Hispanics contribute to GOP gains
Image by Getty Images via @daylifeDemocrats waiting for Texas' growing Hispanic population to put them back in the statewide winner's circle are still waiting. This year, Hispanic voters helped Republicans across the state.There is no reason why a border crackdown should effect Hispanic citizens. It is not like anyone is suggesting that they lose their citizenship and be deported. Either we enforce our borders and our immigration law or we don't. There are consequences to either action, but not enforcing them puts the decision in the hands of people who don't live here already.
Democrats lost four Texas state House seats held by incumbent Hispanics. Locally, Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia also went down to defeat.
The Republicans gained five Hispanic members in the House, and Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman, of Houston, won with more than 60 percent of the statewide vote.
"We had no Hispanic Republicans in the House. Now we have cinco, five," said Juan Hernandez, a founder of Hispanic Republicans of Texas.
Hispanics also played a key role in Gov. Rick Perry's re-election, despite Democrat Bill White's extensive courtship of South Texas and large urban populations.
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The Hispanic Republican victories in Texas seem contrary to an Associated Press exit poll that showed 61 percent of the state's Hispanic voters cast ballots for Democrats.
The contradiction is simple. Overall voter turnout was up in Texas this year, but turnout in many Hispanic areas was stagnant or down.
Some of the most heavily Hispanic state House districts in Harris and Bexar counties saw only about a quarter of the registered voters cast ballots. Some Republican districts, however, had voter turnouts of more than 45 percent.
Republicans have a formula for statewide success that matches an Anglo majority with a third or more of the Hispanic turnout to equal victory. Media consultant Lionel Sosa, of San Antonio, said the Republican vote grew from 8 percent of Hispanics casting ballots in 1978, when it first was targeted by then-U.S. Sen. John Tower, to about 37 percent this year. "This is a new revolution that is happening in Texas," he said.
Perry took advantage of this coalition effect in his victory. Perry spent more than $600,000 on Hispanic advertising during the last three weeks of the campaign.
While exit polling showed a majority of Hispanics voted Democratic, 39 percent voted for Perry's re-election.
In heavily Democratic and Hispanic South Texas, Perry captured 48 percent of the vote. Perry got no less than 20 percent of the vote in South Texas counties and took 40 percent of the Cameron County vote.
Houston Democratic political consultant Marc Campos said Texas Republicans have a history of seeking Hispanic voters while Democrats take them for granted. "They make the effort, and I cannot say that in good conscience about the Democratic Party," he said.
Campos said Hispanic Democratic voter turnout was down in some areas and in other areas was anemic compared to the surge of Republican turnout. He said Reid, Boxer and Brown reached out to Hispanics on issues such as immigration reform and the federal Dream Act to help immigrant youth attend college.
While White tried to reach out to Hispanics by speaking Spanish and airing ads that focused on his family, the former Houston mayor also matched Perry with commercials proclaiming he will crack down on the border.
"Who's tougher on the border isn't exactly going to excite a lot of Latino voters," Campos said.
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I think we are going to see the percentage of Hispanic GOP voters increase. These are hard working people who buy into the the GOP work ethic and the American dream. They are not people looking for a Democrat hand out.
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