More Non-White Voters for the GOP in 2014: Republicans Need to do even better in 2016

Republicans made historic gains across the country on Tuesday, including significant progress with minority voters. Republican Tim Scott became the first elected black senator from the South. Mia Love became the first Republican woman of African-American descent to be elected to the House, and the GOP Hispanic Caucus gained new members from West Virginia and Florida. But marquee names aside, the effort Republicans made has to be intensified if they are to become more competitive in higher-turnout presidential-election years.

One of Mitt Romney’s great failures in 2012 was that he won only 29 percent of Latino voters and a pathetic 27 percent among Asian voters — considerably down from the support George W. Bush had won from these groups in 2000 and 2004. This year, the GOP’s share of votes from these Americans improved. In the national exit poll for local House races, Democrats won 64 percent of Latino voters and also won Asian voters — but only with 52 percent. Among African Americans, Republican support ticked up slightly from Romney’s 6 percent of the vote to 10 percent. Native Americans, who make up 1 percent of the national electorate, favored Republicans by 52 to 43 percent.

Part of the Republican improvement can be traced to lower voter turnout, because younger Latinos and Asians simply don’t show up as much in non-presidential years. But black voter participation this year actually went up from the last midterm election, rising to 12 percent of the electorate, compared with 11 percent in 2010. The new GOP strength among non-black minorities was to some extent the product of aggressive outreach in minority communities by the Republican National Committee and various state parties. In Texas, GOP senator John Cornyn carried the Latino vote by a single percentage point, while Greg Abbott, who is married to a Latina, lost it by only ten points in the race for governor. Abbott carried the Asian-American vote 52 to 48 percent.

The most surprising successes for GOP candidates may have come in Kansas and Georgia. Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas lost the Latino vote (6 percent of the total) by only three points. In Georgia, businessman David Perdue won 42 percent of the Latino vote, in part by arguing that he knew how to improve the economic climate. Republicans suffered a disappointment, though, next door in Florida, where incumbent GOP governor Rick Scott’s share of the Hispanic vote fell from 50 percent in 2010 to 38 percent this year. Scott won the election in both 2010 and 2014 by a single point, which makes demographic comparisons easy — and troubling for Republicans. Staunchly anti-Communist Cubans make up about one-third of Florida’s Hispanic community, with the rest largely Puerto Rican and Central American. But the Cuban percentage of the overall Latino vote has been shrinking, and Scott was a more polarizing figure this year as he ran for reelection.

Looking west, Tom Donelson of Americas PAC – which ran advertising efforts to boost minority support for GOP gubernatorial candidates Scott Walker in Wisconsin and Bruce Rauner in Illinois – says his own Election Day surveys show that both men won 38 percent of the Hispanic vote.

California Republicans surprised some observers in this election by mustering enough strength to block Democrats from winning a two-thirds supermajority in the State Senate and Assembly, thus giving their members in those bodies a voice in tax increases and budget matters. An analysis by KPCC Radio found that the accomplishment resulted partially from “the victories of two Republican candidates from Orange County — both women, both Asian American.”

Karthick Ramakrishnan, a University of California at Riverside political scientist, noted that Asian Americans haven’t traditionally been wedded to any one party. But there are signs in Califorina, he said, that they are becoming alienated from Democrats who want to restore the equivalent of a minority quota system for admission to the prestigious University of California; such de facto quotas are widely seen as giving advantages to blacks and Latinos at the expense of Asian students. “Just as the Asian-American vote moved toward the Democratic party over the last two decades, we may be seeing the beginning of a trend where they are moving back closer toward the Republican party,” Ramakrishnan told KPCC.

Congressman Ed Royce, a Republican who represents much of Orange County, is optimistic about the GOP’s ability to appeal to Asian Americans. “Asian populations here are hard-working, law-abiding, respectful of authority, and highly entrepreneurial,” he told me. “We can do very well with them if they understand that conservative values overlap with their traditions.”

Persuading minorities to abandon what in some cases are decades of allegiance to the Democratic party is a tall order. Republicans all too often approach voters only at election time, having failed to build lasting relationships in minority communities. But as this latest midterm shows, where Republicans did make legitimate and genuine outreach efforts, they began to gain votes from groups that some within the GOP had written off for good. Nothing is permanent in politics, unless you fatalistically believe that voters are a static commodity rather than people who can be appealed to on an individual basis.

Many Asian voters support gun control and the police state. Look at the best Asian run areas like Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Korea. Gun control and a police state.

I think a lot of Asians support Obamacare for some reason.

Hawaii is Democrat.

The hispanic vote in Ohio, North Carolina, Wisconsin and other states is 3% or so.

The GOP would have lost with Romney 70% of the Hispanic vote because there wasn’t enough turnout amongst whites in the midwest.

Florida is probably the only state where the Hispanic vote is significant. Jeb, Rick Scott and Rubio have split the party into pieces pushing for amnesty and tuition. It is a waste of time chasing the Hispanic vote if they can’t unite the GOP base in Florida.

Treating entire entire back grounds as monolithic votes is in itself inherently racist, but this is the game Democrat’s have sold and effectively forced us to play.

Part of the reason they win this game is because they buy off theses minorities with preferential treatment, in combination with lies they sell about us.

What makes american sick is that Democrats are so agressive with the “Hispanic vote” they are willing to sell out the country just to pander to a people they RACIST assume speak primarily Spanish.

In fact most so called american “Hispanics” don’t speak a word of Spanish. It is also a racist assumption that people support mass uncontrolled immigration from 3rd world countries on the account of their race. Indeed so ingrand are theses expectations that people are expected to hold them just because they have a certain racial skin tone.

This is the racist culture we are at odds with, exposing that cuture might do us a lot of good.

“Aging baby boomers turn conservative. Huge demographic bulge, will be long-lived due to health consciousness”

This I think is the biggest positive going forward. Seniors used to be folks who lived thru the FDR presidency and had an allegiance to the Democratic party. Now they are going to be folks who lived through the Reagan years.

This is why you see the senior vote trending away from Dems and toward the GOP

Most Asians as a group they are successful financially. Therefore they should be a natural GOP constituency. Majority of them are Buddhists and Hindu’s and Muslims.
In the overcrowded countries of SE and South Asia, abortions are a way of life. Abortion is a divisive issue for them.

But reason they have turned to democrats is because there is a feeling that they are more welcome there. Republicans have not made serious efforts to woo the Asians.

Very true.

Just as there exists no such block entity as the “white voter”, nor does there exist a “black voter” or a “brown voter” under the Republican viewpoint.

The basis of our Republic as a form of Government, is that the majority of our free citizens will refuse to be controlled by despotic, power hungry, elitist minorities.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.