Liberal and conservative Hispanic groups held (separate) rallies yesterday and agreed on almost everything: Liberals think Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are as bad as GOP frontrunner Donald Trump but conservatives actually think Cruz is “perhaps worse.”
According to The Texas Tribune, Hispanic conservatives “are expressing concern that the Texas senator is in favor of ‘self-deportation,’ an immigration position that helped defeat the last Republican nominee.”
Even before Cruz was outted as supporting self-deportation, Rubio, Trump, and his favorabilities were all underwater with Hispanics:
- Rubio 22/42 (-20)
- Cruz 25/33 (-8)
- Trump 9/84 (-75)
Not numbers one would hope for if the Republican nominee (Hello Mr. Trump) needs substantially more than Mitt Romney’s 27 percent of the Hispanic vote to contend, especially with so much campaigning left with which to offend Americans.
NBC News: Latino, Immigrant Advocates: Cruz, Rubio Same as Trump – “With Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz rising in the polls, Latino and immigrant advocates said the two Latino presidential candidates are similar to Donald Trump and in some cases worse when it comes to representing the community. While Democrats have no Latinos in their field of candidates, Republicans have two who are now seeing their poll numbers improve. While they won’t be the first Latinos to seek a party’s nomination, they are among the few to be serious contenders. In time for Tuesday’s GOP debate, a group of Latino community and national leaders, whose views largely align with Democrats, discussed Rubio, R-Fla., and Cruz, R-Texas, and equated them with Donald Trump.”
Washington Post: Liberal Hispanic activists assail Rubio, Cruz as ‘traitors’ to their culture – At a Monday gathering in Nevada of Democratic Hispanic leaders, ahead of tonight’s GOP debate in Las Vegas, photos of Cruz and Rubio were plastered alongside Trump’s picture, as all three were criticized as anti-Latino…Also Monday, some conservative Hispanics began criticizing Cruz, who has pushed for new limits on immigration — including the repeal of the 14th Amendment guarantee that anyone born in the United States is granted citizenship.
Texas Tribune: Hispanic Conservatives: Cruz “Perhaps Worse” Than Trump – “After meeting with Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign, Hispanic conservative leaders are expressing concern that the Texas senator is in favor of “self-deportation,” an immigration position that helped defeat the last Republican nominee… The position, Aguilar later told reporters, is “perhaps even worse” than Donald Trump’s plan for dealing with people already in the country illegally. The group has already said it could not support Trump as the GOP nominee due to his hardline immigration proposals, which have been characterized as amounting to mass deportation.”
Published: Dec 15, 2015