Economy more important to Hispanics than immigration reform

McCain Lost Ground with Hispanics, Despite Immigration Stance

Thursday, November 06, 2008

By Tiffany Gabbay


(CNSNews.com) - Two-thirds of Hispanics – 66 percent – voted in favor of Barack Obama on Election Day, despite Republican John McCain’s long-time support of the Hispanic community, his work on comprehensive immigration reform, and the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill.

McCain won 32 percent of the Hispanic vote, less than the 40 percent garnered by President Bush in 2004, but more than the 21 percent that former Sen. Bob Dole received in his presidential race in 1996.

McCain, along with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), had sponsored an immigration-reform bill in 2000 that would have set-up guest-worker visas and created a “pathway to citizenshipâ€