Mark Mellman: Trumped on Latino outreach

I can’t count the number of panels I’ve done over the last year where Republican colleagues swore 2016 would be different.

They say they had learned their lesson: the anti-immigrant demagoguery that poisoned the 2012 GOP debates wouldn’t reappear. After all, a Republican National Committee (RNC) autopsy of that race, conducted under the auspices of Chairman Reince Priebus, made it clear that attacking the Latino community was a quick way to ensure defeat. 

{mosads}In their report, former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer and other dispensers of Republican wisdom stated flatly: “If Hispanic Americans hear that the GOP doesn’t want them in the United States, they won’t pay attention to our next sentence. It doesn’t matter what we say about education, jobs or the economy; if Hispanics think that we do not want them here, they will close their ears to our policies. … Our Party’s position on immigration has become a litmus test, measuring whether we are meeting them with a welcome mat or a closed door.” 

One result of Donald Trump’s so-far successful hijacking of the Republican nominating process has been to bring the ugly rhetoric and the closed-door policies back to the fore. When Trump labeled Mexican immigrants “criminals” and “rapists,” his GOP competitors not only failed to take him on, they mostly backed him up. 

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, among others, echoed the billionaire businessman’s call to change the law to end automatic citizenship for those born in the United States, while former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush attacked them, calling them “anchor babies.”

Keeping up with Trump was not the only motivation for those seeking the Republican presidential nod. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio decided to oppose his own immigration reform proposal long before the real estate magnate entered the race. Walker also reversed his position favoring a pathway to citizenship well before Trump picked up steam with his anti-immigrant positioning. 

Republicans are responding to something deeper than Trump’s words — they are acting on their primary voters’ views. 

Seventy percent of Republicans told Fox News pollsters that they generally agreed with Trump’s comments about immigrants, while large majorities of independents and Democrats rejected Trump’s statements.

Forty-six percent of Republicans want to see “illegal immigrants who are currently working in the United States” deported. In response to a different question, posed by a CNN/ORC poll, 63 percent of Republicans wanted the government to focus on deportation, a view shared by just 39 percent of independents and 29 percent of Democrats.

That hardly feels like the “welcome mat” the RNC prescribed as a prerequisite to garnering Latino votes.

These radical policy prescriptions reflect a fundamentally different — and less welcoming — attitude toward immigrants on the part of the GOP.

According to a Pew survey, 63 percent of Republicans see immigrants as a “burden” who generally compete for jobs, housing, and healthcare. By contrast, 62 percent of Democrats believe immigrants “strengthen our country because of their hard work and talents.” Independents look like Democrats, with 57 percent agreeing that immigrants “strengthen” America.

As the RNC knows, Latinos play an outsized electoral role in several swing states, comprising an estimated 16 percent of the eligible electorate in Colorado, 19 percent in Nevada, 20 percent in Florida and more than 40 percent in New Mexico. 

The RNC’s 2012 postmortem made just one policy recommendation in its 97 pages: that Republicans endorse comprehensive immigration reform. 

The party could hardly be further away from that.

Indeed, the GOP cannot meet the RNC’s minimal standard: “We need to ensure that the tone of our message is always reflective of these core principles [tolerance and respect]. … We must emphasize … the importance of a welcoming inclusive message.”

Republican primary voters are unwilling to roll out a welcome mat for Latinos contributing to this country — and GOP candidates are reflecting their voters’ views, dooming the party to a repeat of 2012 with this critical community.  

Mellman is president of The Mellman Group and has worked for Democratic candidates and causes since 1982. Current clients include the minority leader of the Senate and the Democratic whip in the House.