Candidates Who Signed An Anti-Immigration Pledge Are Losing Their Primaries
BY ESTHER YU-HSI LEE JUNE 4, 2014 AT 12:09 PM UPDATED: JUNE 4, 2014 AT 12:25 PM
More Republicans than ever are touting their anti-immigration positions, but Congressional candidates are learning the hard way that taking on such harsh rhetoric does little to win support in this election cycle. In the primary elections held Tuesday and the contests held two weeks ago, candidates who signed a pledge to vow to oppose “amnesty” have not fared well at all against candidates who did not sign this pledge.
In April, conservative radio host Laura Ingraham and the immigration-restrictionist group Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) collaborated to pressure Republican primary candidates to sign a “no-amnesty pledge,” which asks candidates to promise to oppose legislation that would grant any form of work authorization to undocumented immigrants and to oppose legislation that increases the overall number of immigrants and guest workers.
Recent primary results gathered by the Center for New Community suggest that supporting an anti-immigration stance does not readily rile up Republican voters as it had in 2010, when state-wide immigration enforcement efforts in Alabama and Arizona were welcomed. Sam Clovis, a Republican Senate candidate from Iowa, signed the FAIR pledge two weeks ago and criticized the Senate comprehensive immigration reform bill for offering amnesty, but he lost the primary election Tuesday night to another Republican candidate Joni Ernst who did not sign the pledge. Other FAIR pledge signers who lost to non-signers include Mississippi House candidate Ron Vincent who lost to Steve Palazzo, Montana House candidate Drew Turiano who trailed far behind Ryan Zinke, and Gerard McManus — the only New Jersey House candidate from the 1st District to sign the pledge– who lost to Garry Cobb.
The list of pledge signers who lost to non-signers also extends beyond Tuesday night’s election. Nebraska Senate candidate Shane Osborn signed the pledge and lost to non-pledge signer Ben Sasse who was criticized as “weak on immigration.” As Imagine 2050 pointed out, North Carolina House candidate Frank Roche signed the FAIR pledge, but lost to incumbent Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) who has openly emphasized “her support for some reform measures.” Imagine 2050 also has an interactive graphic that charts the anti-immigrant movement’s targeting of Ellmers, who “took the race by seventeen points.”
more
http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2014/06/04/3444123/anti-immigration-pledge-fails/
