You don't win Latino voters with Spanish surnames—we're just not that shallow

[Judi Lynn]

You don't win Latino voters with Spanish surnames—we're just not that shallow
By kos
Wednesday Dec 02, 2015  12:37 PM CST

There is a disturbing—and insulting—bipartisan trend among non-Latinos to assume that a Spanish surname is enough to garner Latino support. Among Republicans, that manifests in the fetishization of almost exclusively Cuban-American Latinos. Yet for several reasons, that has little impact on their ability to attract brown support.

. . .

Bernie Sanders does just as well against Rubio and Cruz among Latinos, which shows that Clinton’s advantages have little to do with her dominant name recognition. Fact is, Latinos fucking hate Republicans, and slapping a Spanish surname on a candidate doesn’t change that fact. In fact, that Spanish surname only buys them a handful of points over the rest of the overtly xenophobic GOP field:

. . .

And even those “improved” Latino numbers are a steep drop-off from traditional GOP performance with this demographic: Mitt Romney managed to win 27 percent of Latinos. The desperate GOP gambit to out-Trump Trump is proving absolutely devastating to the GOP’s short-, mid- and long-term chances. General Latino resentment over the preferential immigration treatment of Cubans only exacerbates that hostility.

But it’s not just Republicans making this mistake ...

More:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/12/02/1456033/-You-don-t-win-Latino-voters-with-Spanish-surnames-we-re-just-not-that-shallow?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29

[Rozlee]

1. No, a Latino surname doesn't sweep us off our feet.

I live 35 miles north of San Antonio these days but spent most of my life until 15 years ago in SA. It's politics still matter a lot to me. Julian Castro might not have much name recognition beyond South Texas, but he's a beloved figure to us down here in his neck of the woods. However, he really doesn't have much experience under his belt and being a VP isn't going to get him much either. He certainly has the gravitas to be president if something ever happened to the chief executive. That's more than you can say for any of the idiots on the Republican ticket. And he's just so doggone cute. But, I'll take Elizabeth Warren in a heartbeat as a better choice for a VP in a Democrat ticket.