By Johannes Sorto
Contributor
In the current political environment, minorities tend to be a major voting bloc for the Democratic Party. Every year a Democratic candidate wins an election, the pundits always claim that it is because of a strong minority turnout. Immediately after the pundits heap praise to the Democratic candidate for having such infinite wisdom, they then scold the Republicans for ignoring minorities and then outrageously claim that the party will cease to exist without the support of minorities.
While it is true that the Republican Party does not put a significant amount of resources into attracting the minority vote, the second half of that argument is absolute nonsense. After the slaughter Republicans received in 2008, the Republican Party has been winning across every level of government in historic fashion.
The Republican Party today has control of both the House and the Senate; 31 states have Republican governors and Republicans control approximately 70 of the 99 state legislative chambers. The Republican Party has accomplished all of this without the minority vote, which means the GOP is not going anywhere any time soon.
However this does not mean the Republican Party should ignore minorities. In fact, the Republican Party should be strongly encouraged to go after minorities, more specifically Hispanics.
If Republicans were able to make significant inroads with minorities, the Democratic Party would be the ones who would be at threat of extinction. If the Democrats continue to follow the Obama coalition, they will have no chance of obtaining the majority of white voters. In 2012 white voters counted for 70 percent of the total electorate and Obama lost to Romney among white voters aged between 39 and 59 years old, a 20 percent margin that would kill any candidate except for Obama.
The only reason Obama won was because of the minority vote, by having a higher turnout of African-Americans at 13 percent, which most Democratic candidates cannot replicate. The average African-American turnout in presidential elections is about 10 percent.
The Hispanic vote, which was 10 percent of the 2012 electorate, largely went to Obama because of a lack of effort from the Romney campaign. Any skeptics who may think it was more than just a lack of effort should look into George W. Bush.
Despite all his endless faults the left loves to point out, Bush was very effective at getting the Hispanic vote. In 2000 Bush won 38 percent of Hispanics and in 2004 he won 44 percent, while Romney received 27 percent. Had Romney performed as well as Bush did among Hispanics in 2012, we would consider this period as one of the strongest periods for the Republican Party in American history.
Going by this, the Republican Party should by all means go after Hispanics. Doing so would cripple the Democratic Party and bring in a new era of conservatism. When it comes to trying to get their votes, it should not be too difficult considering that the GOP does not need to have a majority of the Hispanic vote. Only a plurality of at least 30 percent is needed, and we have already succeeded in doing this during the Bush administration.
When looking at the impact of the minority vote, it boils down to a must-win for Democrats in order to survive, and the greatest opportunity for Republicans. The question is whether the Republican Party will actually make an effort to get the Hispanic vote like they did under President Bush.
Johannes Sorto is the president of the Republicans of Hofstra University
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