Mike Madrid, author of the new book “The Latino Century,” is better situated than most political consultants to comment on the U.S. Latino electorate because of his job experience and upbringing.
While growing up in a Mexican American family in Southern California, Madrid says, he became a Republican in his heart at age 9 when Ronald Reagan was first elected president in 1980. A longtime GOP member, he has advised high-profile candidates at the state and national level.
Simon & Schuster / AP
Latinos, a fast-growing group, now represent about 19% of the U.S. population, with U.S.-born Latinos viewing policy more in generational than ethnic terms.
A critic of former president Donald Trump since he launched his 2016 campaign with an attack on Mexicans, Madrid is also co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project.
Both Republicans and Democratic operatives are getting the Latino electorate all wrong in the 2024 presidential cycle, when Hispanics could play a crucial role, he says.
Jobs and the economy are consistently the top issues for Latinos, and it’s a mistake to assume they are simply an aggrieved minority focused on immigration, farm workers and the border, he says. He also notes that many U.S. Latinos are not immigrants and that plenty don’t speak Spanish at all.
But Madrid says Latinos should play a larger role in U.S. democracy as a fast-growing, optimistic group that now represents about 19% of the country’s population. That’s larger than any other racial or ethnic minority.
He proposes the idea of a multiethnic, pluralistic democracy in which the fight is for something, not against something. He also calls for both parties to take into account the views not only of naturalized Latino immigrants but also of their U.S. born children and grandchildren, who see policy more in generational terms than in ethnic ones.
The consultant and pollster faults Democratic Party advisers for sometimes incorrectly assuming their party speaks for all Latinos, He also sees a partisan bias among some Democratic research firms that have missed the rightward shift of Hispanic voters while oversampling Spanish speakers and naturalized immigrants. While most Latinos are still Democrats, the party has steadily lost support among them as it focuses on white, progressive, college-educated voters who are more interested in cultural issues than working class concerns.
As for Republicans, Madrid says the GOP needs to understand that the rightward shift by Latino voters in recent elections has little to do with its efforts. Instead, it reflects the assimilation of a group of people whose families have been in the U.S. for years, if not generations.
The GOP’s almost exclusive focus on white voters without a college education is not helping the party with Latino voters, he says. Nor is its use of racial wedge issues such as demonizing Latin American immigrants.
If Republicans would move beyond white grievance and became more pro-immigrant, they could win more Latino support and win more national elections, Madrid argues.
The GOP, he says, also should focus more on the traditional economic policies that Latino voters care most about: cutting taxes and slashing government regulations.
___
About the book
“THE LATINO CENTURY: How America’s Largest Minority is Transforming Democracy”
Mike Madrid
Simon & Schuster. 272 pp. $28.99.
Originally Published:
