State Rep. DeAyala says Republicans must hold massive Latino gains
Republicans campaigning to Latino voters
Some in the nation still shaking in disbelief at the massive number of Texas Latinos who shifted their vote to Donald Trump and the Republican Party. FOX 26 political reporter Greg Groogan spoke with a local GOP lawmaker whose been waging a campaign of persuasion with his fellow Hispanics for years.
HOUSTON - Heads across the nation still shaking in disbelief at the massive number of Texas Latinos who shifted their vote to Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
FOX 26 Political Reporter Greg Groogan spoke with Republican State Representative Mano DeAyala, whose been waging a campaign of persuasion on fellow Hispanics for several years.
Groogan:
I have been doing this for 40 years and I have never seen a demographic shift 28% cycle to cycle, much less 40%. That's what Latino males did in the great state of Texas moving from Team Biden to Team Trump. How do you explain it?
DeAyala:
We are seeing voters come out in droves. For the first time in modern history, a Republican President has won the Hispanic vote statewide. That's amazing.
Groogan:
That is cataclysmic for the Democrats. It's landscape-changing for Republicans. Is it a one and done? How do you hold that?
DeAyala:
That's the concern, is this a one and done? Did the stars align with so many reasons to make this happen or is this a progression that we see continuing? I think it's the latter.
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Groogan:
The Democrats presented an agenda heavily weighted on abortion rights and failed to defend their policy on the border, failed to adequately defend their policy on transgender issues.
DeAyala:
It's this welfare state mentality. It's this ‘what am I going to do for you,’ not what I can help you do, for yourself. It's the let's go focus more on those who are here undocumented, rather than the people who are citizens and residents here and the list goes on. All of that resonates. If you have the right message and the right messenger, the truth ultimately prevails, and I think in this election cycle, it did.
Groogan:
Are Latinos in Texas just tired of waiting?
DeAyala:
If we as a party do not capitalize on these gains that we had this last cycle and I don't mean next election cycle, I mean tomorrow. If we don't continue to build on that, shame on us.