Many Latino Men Are Supporting President Trump In Tuesday’s Vote

Enlarge this image

Supporters of President Trump wave during a Latinos for Trump Roundtable at the Arizona Grand Resort in Phoenix on Sept. 14.

Nick Oza/The Republic/USA Today Network via Reuters

hide caption

toggle caption

Nick Oza/The Republic/USA Today Network via Reuters

Code Switch
The Latinx Vote Comes Of Age

But the support tracks with a Republican Party effort to court Latino voters over decades. Republican strategists turned to Latino communities when they started to see African American voters fleeing the party in the 1950s and 1960s, said Geraldo Cadava, a historian at Northwestern University who wrote the book on Hispanic Republicans.

President Richard Nixon set the tone with politics of patronage and high-level appointments of Latinos, Cadava said. So this year is similar.

«It’s kind of right in line with elections in the past, ever since Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign in 1972, Republicans have won somewhere between a quarter and a third of the Latino vote, said Cadava, author of The Hispanic Republican: The Shaping of an American Political Identity, from Nixon to Trump. «I would point first to the development over a long period of time of a partisan loyalty to the Republican Party. And Latino Republican voters just identify as Republicans above all else, just like, you know, many Americans. And there is a kind of tribalism among Latino Republicans, just like there is among many Americans. I think they’re actually trying to win Latino votes.

While some might expect that support to wane in communities who’ve been most severely impacted by COVID-19 — losing more jobs and more lives than other demographic groups — Cadava said the Trump campaign’s messaging has been successful on low unemployment for Latinos pre-pandemic, law and order (many Latinos serve in the military, police force and in the border patrol) and other issues important to Latino conservatives.

«It’s been kind of amazing to watch, I mean, in some ways the Latinos for Trump campaign, which started officially in the spring of 2019, has been relentless in recruiting Latino voters, Cadava said. «They’re actually trying to increase Trump’s Latino support, not just kind of hold it steady or depress the turnout of Democrats. They’re trying to win more Latino votes.

In Orange County, Randall Avila is counting on Latino voters to turn the country red again by flipping back four congressional seats the party lost in 2018 and holding on to the county seat.

Elections
With Warnings Of Socialism, Trump Seeks To Boost Support Among Young Florida Latinos

Avila is ethnically Mexican, 30, and the executive director of the Orange County Republican Party.

«I’ve been called every name in the book, from coconut to many other things, he said.

But that dirisive rhetoric doesn’t phase him, he said. This party is where he feels at home.

«Our families and our communities, you know, really took care of each other and took care of ourselves. We weren’t really focused on what is the government going to do for us, he said. «The independent spirit of our community really drove me to the Republican ideal of making sure that you’re able to provide for yourself and your family, that you have that independence and that liberty to be able to start your own business or work where you wanted to, or go to school where you wanted to go and have those opportunities available.

His Christian fatih also aligned him with the Republican Party on issues such as abortion. And while he said he probably wouldn’t phrase things the way Donald Trump does sometimes, Latino voters like him are attracted to the message of lower taxes and lower costs of living, especially in California.

«I’ve never seen the Republican Party fight this hard to get Latino and African American votes, he said. «We have a number of Latino candidates, a number of Latino Republicans who are really stepping up and taking center stage. I’m hoping that that can be a better conduit to connecting with Latinos across the country and showing them that with the Republican Party, there is a place for you here. This is your home as a voter.