Actress, philanthropist and activist Eva Longoria his a huge Hillary Clinton supporter. This week Longoria even brought her political action group the Latino Victory Project on board the Clinton train. With that formal endorsement, Clinton is one step closer to monopolizing the field of Latino politicians, celebrities and organizations in the former secretary of state’s hard-fought primary battle against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. But there’s another primary going on -- and there’s a decent chance that a conservative Latino Texas Sen. Ted Cruz could come out on top.
Eva Longoria spoke to to HuffPost Live this week and weighed in on another interview that mentioned Ted Cruz. In the clip, fellow Latina Hillary supporter America Ferrera trashes a reporter who insinuated that a hypothetical Clinton vs. Cruz election matchup would be conflicting her as a Hispanic woman. Ferrera rejected the premise of the question, which is that a voting decision is only about identity politics.
"I think she's exactly right,” Longoria said, “I think that one of the big misconceptions about the Hispanic community is that we will automatically vote for somebody with a Spanish surname. And our community is much smarter than that."
Another Spanish surname on the GOP ballot is Marco Rubio, the Florida Sen. who is competing with Cruz, Donald Trump and former governors Jeb Bush and John Kasich for the nomination. While Longoria is right that the majority of Hispanic voters won’t cast ballots just because of a surname, she shouldn’t discount the possibility altogether.
Read More: What Makes A “Latino” Presidential Candidate?
Both Rubio and Cruz have won votes from Hispanics that didn’t support other conservatives with similar policies. They might not beat a candidate like Clinton, but evidence suggests that they would do slightly better than a GOP candidate with a name like Mitt Romney.
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