Leading up to the 2024 presidential primaries, Republicans have a new voting bloc: Hispanics.
Across America, Republicans are winning more and more Hispanic votes, cutting into the Democratic Party’s longstanding advantage. Democrats have grown complacent with voters from Cuba, Venezuela and other Latin American countries. They made the mistake of not realizing (or just ignoring) that Hispanics are not a monolithic community. There are many, many different kinds of Hispanics, all with different perspectives and unique interests.
Making matters worse for Democrats, they have become more radical and left-wing than ever before. Today’s far-left Democrats simply cannot appeal to a Hispanic population that is culturally conservative at its core.
Hispanics are patriotic people. Their faith in God and family is strong, and they love America. They came to the United States for a reason — not to hear America’s name dragged through the mud, but to live the American dream. And millions of Hispanics are living that dream on a daily basis. I’m one of them, proudly enjoying life in America’s freest state (Florida) and its most exciting city (Miami).
If you’re looking for a strong work ethic, look no further than Hispanic communities. Hispanics admire and strive for wealth rather than demonizing it. They want to experience prosperity for themselves, and they want their children to live it, too. Hispanics also believe in school choice because they care about what students are taught in the classroom. They are concerned about new-age education that favors left-wing brainwashing over actual teaching. The future workforce needs to be educated in artificial intelligence, programming and data analytics, not the garbage that we see in many classrooms across America.
Hispanics are not “woke.” Liberal politicians may use words like “Latinx” or play gender politics, but the Democratic platform is a fringe worldview in the eyes of Hispanics themselves. Just 3% of Hispanics use “Latinx” to describe themselves.
Unfortunately, many Americans have come to take the United States for granted — its many gifts and the many privileges it bestows upon those who live here. Too many have lost sight of real adversity, complaining about relatively insignificant problems or inventing them out of thin air. Young Americans, for example, embrace socialism and communism because they simply have it too good in a free-market system. They have lost perspective.
But Hispanics are not losing that perspective, not when they know the alternative from personal experience. Many Hispanics came to the United States to escape the horrors of socialism and communism. Hyper-inflation, starvation and political persecution are not just buzzwords to them; they are cold, hard realities. And they’re slowly seeing them play out in the United States.
The more Democrats promote socialism and communism as the cures to our (contrived) ills, the more Hispanic votes they lose. The further left the Democratic Party moves, the greater that divide grows.
Momentum is on the side of Republicans. But they cannot take that momentum for granted either. With 2024 around the corner, Republicans can’t make the same mistake that Democrats have made for decades. The Republican Party needs to make an affirmative case for Hispanics to vote in their favor, and they can do it by empowering leaders who resonate most with them.
There is no better example than Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Republican Party’s best chance to win the White House and a beloved conservative champion among Hispanic voters. Last November, DeSantis won nearly 60% of the Hispanic vote in his state, including over two-thirds of Cubans. Time and time again, Florida’s governor has championed conservative policies and turned them into laws. DeSantis doesn’t just talk the talk; he walks the walk — through leadership and good governance. Along the way, he defends the very same American dream that millions of Hispanics hope to live — in Florida and around the country. And Hispanics are rewarding him for it.
Knowing Hispanics, it’s not surprising to see them abandon Democrats en masse. Nor is it a surprise to see Hispanics embrace true leaders like DeSantis. What’s surprising is that some Republicans don’t realize the opportunity they have in 2024, while Democrats who fear a DeSantis candidacy clearly do.
If Republicans are serious about winning the Hispanic vote, they’ll support a leader with the proven track record of winning it before. That’s Ron DeSantis. If they’re not, then Republicans are in danger of losing out on a generational opportunity.
Gabriel Llanes serves as executive director of Ready for Ron.
