Washington Insider with Ronald Kessler

GOP Must Target Hispanic Voters

Wednesday, November 19, 2008 10:25 AM

By: Ronald Kessler

With the election behind us, there are many lessons to be learned and facts to be gleaned as Republicans regroup. However, one hard fact stands out among all: The Republican Party must embrace Hispanics and immigration reform or forget about winning back the White House.

It is readily apparent that Republicans are losing Hispanics — the nation’s largest and fastest growing minority group — big time.

A Pew Research Center survey found that after spending much of this decade loosening their ties to the Democrats, Hispanics began a dramatic swing back during the debate over immigration reform.

Republicans who opposed legislation to allow illegal aliens to eventually gain citizenship came across as hostile to Hispanics. The Pew survey found that most Hispanics now view the Democratic Party as the one showing more concern for them and doing a better job on the issue of illegal immigration.

The irony is that by opposing the Bush reform legislation, Republicans in effect gave illegal aliens blanket amnesty, because no action is being taken to deal with them.

The trend away from the Republican Party began showing up in the 2006 congressional election. The lesson of that election was that “anti-immigrant rhetoric and votes in favor of walling off the Southern border did not win votes for Republicans,â€