Latino Disconnect Worries GOP

The Republican Party is facing falling Latino support, but little is being done to reverse the trend, Politico reports. Some Latinos have been disillusioned by Republican rhetoric on illegal immigration, attacks some heard as swipes at Hispanics themselves. “If we don’t figure out a way to open our party up to more Hispanic voters, nothing else we do will matter,” said a former GOP congressman.

Republicans “all know it’s a problem. They aren’t talking about it, because they fear the anti-immigration wing of their party,” says an author. The GOP must lose the appearance of a “raw ethnic animus,” one consultant says, then decide whether to appeal to the conservative values that helped George W. Bush to victory, or trumpet different issues, like school choice. (More Latino voters stories.)