The Damaged Republican Brand

NDN has been arguing that the GOP would have difficulty courting Hispanic voters this cycle because they damaged their brand with their anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic rhetoric.  We are glad that the GOP has finally begun to accept this reality.  In today's Politico, David Paul Kuhn, reports that US Senator John McCain is struggling to gain Hispanics because of this issue.

GOP strategist Bill McInturff has long emphasized that earning 40 percent of the Hispanic vote is critical for Republicans to win. Today, McInturff is John McCain's pollster, and by his metric McCain has a serious Latino problem.

While he earned the support of about seven in ten Hispanics in his last Arizona Senate race, a Pew Hispanic Center poll released Thursday shows that just 23 percent of Latinos intend to vote for McCain in the presidential contest, barely half of the four in ten Latino voters who exit polls showed voted for President Bush in 2004.

"You have to understand in a way that the Republican party is damaged among Hispanics," conceded Hessy Fernandez, McCain's spokesperson for Hispanic media.