By Louis Jacobson
5:55 PM on Jul 16, 2024 CDT
MILWAUKEE — Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas, expressed confidence that Latino voters will flock to former President Donald Trump in 2024 despite such voters’ historically Democratic leanings.
Trump’s choice of J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, will resonate with many Latinos because the senator is a millennial at age 39, De La Cruz said.
“Younger voters don’t connect with (President Joe) Biden, and one of the reasons is age,” she said. Hispanic voters skew younger than other ethnic and racial groups.
De La Cruz’s comments came during a panel sponsored by the news outlet Axios that was focused on policies important to Latino voters. The second day of the Republican National Convention was largely focused on immigration issues.
The congresswoman was joined on the panel, which was not an official RNC event, by Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., for the discussion moderated by Julio Vaqueiro of the Spanish-language TV network Noticias Telemundo.
“Hispanics, especially in my community, it’s not about what you say. It’s what you do,” De La Cruz said. “And what we found in Hispanic communities like mine is that you were better off four years ago. We had more money in our pocket.”
Trump, she said, is “focused on not only making America great again, but making America prosperous again. That will resonate to Hispanics because we want a better economy and we want a safe and secure border.”
However, De La Cruz exaggerated the economic status of Latinos under Trump and Biden. The Dallas Morning News’ partner, the fact-checking website PolitiFact, recently crunched the numbers and found that wage growth for Latinos was modestly faster under Biden than it was under Trump.
After adjusting for inflation, weekly earnings for full-time Latino workers under Trump averaged $271.30 before the pandemic hit in March 2020. Despite higher inflation, take-home pay for Latino workers starting in 2022′s first quarter averaged $284.30, a level almost 5% higher under Biden.
