GOP Hard Line on Immigration Undermines Hispanic SupportThe Huffington Post
June 12, 2007 06:29 PM
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Republican opposition to liberalized immigration reform has put at risk the loyalty of a key constituency - evangelical Protestant Hispanics. The loss of this Hispanic support endangers the GOP's ability to win presidential elections.
In the view of Republican strategists, it is crucial for the party's candidates to win a substantial share of the Hispanic vote to remain competitive in the Southwest mountain states - Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico - and, looking farther ahead, in Florida and Texas.
Key leaders in the rapidly growing Latino evangelical community who had provided strong support to President Bush in 2004 are deeply angered by the opposition among Republicans to immigration legislation now stalled in the Senate.
"The Republican Party does not have a clue just how the perception of them among Hispanics has completely deteriorated in the last few years," said Marcos Witt, Senior Pastor of the Hispanic congregation at Lakewood Church in Houston and a three-time Latin Grammy winner for his Christian recordings.
Witt, a social conservative who actively supported Bush's re-election campaign, said in an interview with Huffington Post that Latino resentment is so strong in Texas that
"our Senators (Republicans John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison) can kiss the Hispanic vote goodbye."http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/06/12/gop-hard-line-on-immigrat_n_51874.html