Hispanics 'Love the Memory of Ronald Reagan,' Claims Jaime Florez of the RNC

Hispanics are generally considered Democrats, but numbers show that has been slightly changing, and the Republican National Committee spoke about on Republican Presidential Primary pre-debate show.

Fox Business hosted its second Republican Presidential Primary Debate on Sept. 27, 2023. During the pre-debate show, Director of Strategic Communications from the Republican National Committee Tommy Pigott invited the RNC's Hispanic Communications Director Jaime Florez to speak about Hispanics and the RNC.

With elections a little over a year away, Republican presidential candidates are coming together to debate, and during the pre-debate show, they had a specific segment dedicated to speaking about Hispanic Heritage Month with Florez. Florez said for the RNC, Hispanic Heritage Month is a special time, and they spend it celebrating all the input Hispanic Americans bring to the U.S. In the pre-debate show.

He started by giving credit to the "hard work of Hispanics" who, through their effort, knowledge, talent and capacity of work, have helped build the U.S. Notably, when Pigott asked Florez what he thought some of the issues Hispanic voters want addressed from the GOP candidates, Florez referenced Hispanics fondness of former president Ronald Reagan.

"Well, Tommy, Hispanics love the memory of Ronald Reagan, the president of the United States. As a matter of fact, he used to say, 'Hispanics are Republican, they just don't know,' and believe me, they are finding out, they already know they are Republicans," Florez said in the pre-debate show. "We have much more in common with the values and the principals of the Republican party than we have to do with the other party."

Although some Hispanics are often bilingual, Florez emphasized that they're still community members and care about the same issues as all Americans. Florez said the economy, creation of new jobs, education, safety and immigration are important to Hispanics, but he distinguished between immigration and what he considers a border crisis. He said the border crisis must be resolved before Hispanics think about fixing immigration.

Regarding what Florez described as the open border policy–the U.S. does not have open borders by definition–from the current administration, he said Hispanics do not like it because it compromises the safety of their families and neighborhoods. Florez said the RNC is reaching out to Hispanics through community centers to spread the shared goal of safe streets and a good economy.

Florez said in the last cycle, the RNC had 38 community centers for minorities, 18 of which were Hispanic community centers. Florez said the community centers let them have campaign offices in Hispanic communities. But in addition to campaign offices, Florez said the community centers allowed them to have a place where members of the Hispanic community throughout the entire country could have a place to listen to what the GOP has to tell them. Additionally, he said this gave the Hispanic community a chance to tell the GOP their ideas and what they want from them.

These community centers also served as a place for Hispanics to gather, but it also was a place where the RNC could teach Hispanics how to apply for American citizenship. Florez said that reaching out to the Hispanic community in this fashion is a project they are starting for this electoral cycle.

The growth of Hispanics voting for Republicans

"We had over 100 Hispanic candidates for the House of Representatives in the last 2022 cycle, and that was without any precedent. We had the opportunity to elect Juan Ciscomani in Arizona. We elected Monicca De La Cruz in Texas, we elected Ana Paulina Luna in Florida and many more over the country," Florez said. The RNC has more voters, more candidates and more congress members that come from minority groups, many of which came from the Hispanic community, Florez said.

A sign of the growing population of Hispanics who support the GOP could be suggested by the fact that one of the presenters of the second Republican Presidential Primary Debate was Univision, the largest Spanish-speaking television network in the U.S. Additionally, Ilia Calderon, an Univision anchor, was one of the moderators of the second Republican Presidential Primary Debate.

Comparing the way Hispanics voted for Joe Biden V. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton V. Donald Trump shows there's been a slight move in the number of Hispanics voting Republican. According to Gallup, 65% of Hispanic voters voted for Biden compared to 32% of Hispanics voting for Trump in the last election. In the previous election, 65% of Hispanic voters voted for Clinton compared to 29% of Hispanics voting for Trump. The increase of Republican Hispanic voters is 3%, but which some consider insignificant, and others consider it as important to notice according to a Gallup survey.