by Jeb Bush
Even though Republicans in Texas and Florida do better than their counterparts in other states, they still have not won over Hispanic voters to the extent necessary to consider them Republican states over the long term. Indeed, Florida Hispanics abandoned Romney in the 2012 presidential election, helping deliver a rich electoral prize to President Obama. Similarly, Texas demographics will make that state purple rather than red unless Republicans do better among Hispanics. In other words, though Florida and Texas Republicans have better track records than Republicans in other states, the party needs to do a much better job everywhere.
The bottom line is that in addition to the national imperative for comprehensive immigration reform, the Republican Party has a strong institutional interest in putting the emotionally charged rancor behind us and resolving immigration issues for the long term. At the same time, it is critical that Republicans do not compromise the core values necessary for an immigration policy that works for America. Our policy recommendations demonstrate that Republicans can champion immigration reform in ways that are fully consistent with their ideals. By doing so, they will remove a barrier that prevents Republicans from credibly reaching out to Hispanics and other immigrants on other issues on which they share strong core values.
2. Promote freedom of enterprise and educational choice.
Like most immigrants, Hispanics are tremendously entrepreneurial and create a vast number of small, family-owned businesses. Economic conditions and federal tax and regulatory policies over the past four years have not been kind to small businesses. Republicans should bring their message of low taxes and moderate regulatory policies to Hispanic communities whose economic future depends on such policies.
In particular, licensing regulations often disproportionately hamper Hispanic businesses that tend to operate informally. Republicans should champion enterprise zones, deregulation of entry into occupations and businesses that require few skills and little capital, and lower business taxes. More important, they should engage Hispanic business and community leaders in identifying and eradicating barriers to enterprise. As Democrats continue compounding the inherent risks of small businesses by piling on taxes and regulations at every level of government, Republicans should be seen as ardent defenders of small businesses.
No issue resonates more strongly among Hispanics than education. No wonder: nearly half of all Hispanics—more than any other ethnic group—have children in school or on their way.28 Hispanics, especially in low-income households, are disproportionately consigned to poor-performing public schools. As a result, Hispanics are active participants in school choice programs.
Although public school choice is increasingly a bipartisan issue and a handful of Democrats have supported some forms of private school choice, teacher unions are such a powerful force in the Democratic Party that many elected officials, including those who represent constituents who desperately need expanded educational opportunities, are unwilling to support school choice and other systemic education reforms. This is an albatross around the neck of many Democratic candidates and elected officials. Both as a matter of moral imperative and political opportunity, Republicans should strongly promote school choice and bring their message into Hispanic communities.
Public opinion polls consistently show that education is a high-priority issue for Hispanic voters, and that Hispanics support school choice more strongly than do other groups. A 2012 survey for the American Federation for Children and the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options found that two-thirds of Hispanics believe that school choice is a positive force in education.29 Hispanic support extends to all forms of school choice, including school vouchers (69 percent support versus 29 percent opposed), special-needs scholarships (80 to 16 percent), tax credits for private school scholarships (71 to 26 percent), education savings accounts (70 to 26 percent), and charter schools (62 to 25 percent).30 Support is even greater among Hispanic parents, who favor school vouchers by a 77–22 percent margin.31 An earlier survey found that the issue has great political salience for Hispanic voters, given that three-quarters of Hispanic parents would be interested in participating in a school choice program.32 Not surprisingly, then, nearly two-thirds of Hispanics said they would be more likely—and one-third much more likely—to vote for a candidate for elective office who supports school choice.33 On the flip side, 59 percent of Hispanic Democrats, 62 percent of Republicans, and a remarkable 74 percent of independents would oppose a candidate who was against school choice.34 Most significant for Republicans, Hispanic voters by a 70–20 percent margin said they would cross party lines to vote against an anti–school choice candidate.35
Reaching out to Hispanic voters on enterprise and education is not pandering. It is making common cause on core issues that Republicans and Hispanics share in common. Good policy makes for good politics. Democrats will never be as pro-enterprise and pro–school choice as Republicans. Forming an alliance increases the odds of success on those important issues and demonstrates that Republicans care about issues of great concern to Hispanics. It is a winning combination.
3. Get religion.
Certainly the most important characteristics most conservatives and Hispanics share are religious and family values. Hispanics tend to be deeply religious, to practice conservative forms of Christianity, and to be politically influenced by their religion.
Two major studies over the past decade—one produced jointly by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and the other by the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies—shed great insight on the practice and influence of religion in American Hispanic communities. More than two-thirds of Hispanics are Catholic, while 15 percent are Protestants. Only 8 percent of Hispanics are atheist, agnostic, or unaffiliated with a church.36 Most Hispanics pray every day and attend church at least once a month. They are more than twice as likely than other Americans to say that religion is very important in their lives. Almost half of Catholic Hispanics believe the Bible is the literal word of God—more than twice the rate of white Catholics.37
What is most striking about Hispanic religious beliefs is their attachment to “renewalist” faiths—pentecostal, evangelical, and charismatic. More than half of Hispanic Catholics and Protestants describe themselves in such terms, compared to only 10 percent of non-Hispanic Catholics and 20 percent of Protestants.38 Moreover, conversion to Protestantism among Hispanics in the United States is large and growing: only one in six first-generation Hispanics is Protestant, while nearly one in three second- and third-generation Hispanics are Protestant.39
Two-thirds of Hispanics say their religious beliefs are an important influence on their political thinking. Among evangelicals, 86 percent say their religious beliefs are an important influence in this regard, and 62 percent say they are “very important.”40 Yet fewer than one in four Hispanics has ever been asked by churches or religious leaders to engage on a political issue, suggesting vast untapped mobilization potential.41
Religiosity among Hispanics exerts strong ideological influences: among Hispanic Catholics who attend church at least once weekly, 36 percent are conservative and only 18 percent are liberal; among evangelicals, 46 percent are conservative and only 10 percent are liberal.42 Notably, while Hispanics as a whole are more likely than non-Hispanics to oppose abortion and gay marriage, first-generation Hispanics are more conservative on those issues than third-generation Hispanics.43
But once again, conservatism among religious Hispanics has not translated into Republican partisan affiliation. Democrats outnumber Republicans by 55 to 18 percent among Hispanic Catholics, compared to a 39 to 32 percent Republican edge among non-Hispanic Catholics. While Hispanic evangelicals are evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, Republicans outnumber Democrats two-to-one among non-Hispanic evangelicals.44
Those findings reflect huge growth opportunities for Republicans. Obviously, a large part of Republican electoral successes since 1980 is attributable to mobilizati
on of religious voters, particularly evangelicals. Republicans should make a similar effort to connect with Hispanics on religious faith and moral values. In particular, given the tremendous attachment among Hispanics to their families, policies that are pro-family are pro-Hispanic. That is an important message that Republicans need to communicate, and on which they can make common cause with Hispanics.
4. Reach out for real.
By a margin of more than three to one, Hispanic voters believe that Democrats are in better touch with their communities than Republicans.45 As long as that perception persists, Republicans will face an uphill climb in attracting Hispanic voters, even if their views on important issues align.
Efforts that feature isolated “Hispanic outreach coordinators” making superficial appeals are doomed to fail. Republicans must make a deep and sustained commitment to Hispanics as partners in pursuit of the American Dream. They need to take their message to Hispanic communities, directly and persistently, and to recruit and embrace Hispanic candidates in meaningful electoral contests.
Specifically, Republicans should actively recruit qualified Hispanic candidates, and members of other immigrant groups, to run for local and state offices. Those are the positions that are closest to immigrant communities, and they create a strong bench for higher offices. Republican governors should appoint diverse men and women to positions of responsibility in the executive branch, to boards and commissions, and to the judiciary. Republican candidates should campaign in minority communities and start early with effective, sustained efforts. In office, Republican officials should maintain close relationships with minority communities and work closely with community leaders to develop grassroots support for legislation on issues of mutual concern.
Research reveals that Hispanics are more inclined to vote Democratic if they are packed in heavily Democratic districts.46 In recent years, using the Voting Rights Act and plain old gerrymandering, Republicans cynically have fostered heavily minority voting districts in an attempt to carve out safe Republican districts. Isolation begets hostility. Republicans must directly engage Hispanics if they have any hope of winning their votes, which means integration rather than segregation of voting districts.
The current Republican predicament was nothing if not predictable. As former Republican National Committee chairman Mel Martinez warned more than five years ago, “I think there would be great political risks to becoming the party of exclusion, and not a party of inclusion.”47
He was right. Republicans will face an ever-shrinking base—and ultimately extinction—if they continue to alienate the voters they lost in great numbers in 2012, including single women, blacks, and gays. But nothing is more inexplicable than the failure of Republicans to reach out to immigrants generally, and Hispanics specifically, given that they cherish traditional Americans ideals. How are we to save our country if not for the newcomers brought here by their devotion to those ideals?
Republicans should echo the aspirations of Hispanics and other immigrants. The American immigration experience is the most aspirational story ever told. Immigrants left all that was familiar to them and risked everything to come here to make better lives for their families, precisely because they believed that was possible here and not somewhere else. Indeed, embracing the aspirational ideals of immigrants could help bring about a needed resurgence of American exceptionalism. On this score, Republicans have a winning message and a record to back it. They are the party of small business, of school choice, of family values, of American exceptionalism. When we hear foreign languages on our streets, that is a validation of the Republican vision of America—to create a country where people want to come to live their lives and raise their families.
Regardless of how the current immigration debate resolves, newcomers and their children will continue to add to our population. Most immigrants are attracted to America not by our welfare state but by the promise of opportunity. That is true of Hispanics, who exemplify traditional Republican values of hard work, entrepreneurship, education, family, and belief in God. They may not be natural Republicans, but many if not most are open to voting for them. Given demographic trends that immigration policy is powerless to reverse, the Republican Party needs to attract as many Hispanic votes as it can. Though the task is difficult, Republicans can draw enormous comfort from the fact that attracting Hispanic votes does not mean abandoning their core principles, but embracing them.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
WE ARE ENORMOUSLY INDEBTED TO many individuals who helped make this book possible.
First and foremost, thanks to our families for their support, patience, and inspiration.
Our first-rate researchers, Brian Symes and Roman Goerss, were indispensable in compiling key data and background materials for the book.
We were fortunate to have two of the nation’s top experts on immigration policy read and offer comments on key parts of the manuscript: Emilio Gonzalez, former Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Tamar Jacoby, president and CEO of ImmigrationWorks USA. Any errors that remain in the book are ours.
We are very grateful to the individuals who agreed to interviews, and whose stories and insights greatly enrich the book: Kirk Adams, Julie Erfle, Mac Magruder, Laura Osio Khosrowshahi, Faithful Okoye, Annette Poppleton, Randy Pullen, and Nina Shokraii Rees.
We are thankful to many people contributed to the book in various ways, ranging from providing ideas and information to sponsoring valuable forums, lending logistical assistance, or helping with publicity. They include Carlos Alfaro, Jennifer Alvarez, David Armstrong, John Bailey, Maria Barrocas, Shawnna Bolick, George W. Bush, Tom Church, Matthew Denhart, Taylor Earl, Jaryn Emhof, Julio Fuentes, James C. Ho, Marcus Huey, Joe Jacquot, Garrett Johnson, Dan Jones, Helen Krieble, Matthew Ladner, Patricia Levesque, John Raisian, Jeffrey Rich, Robin Roberts, Helen Rowan, Amity Schlaes, Carol Shippy, W. Randall Stroud, and Chuck Warren.
We could not have asked for a better publishing team, including our editor, Mitchell Ivers, along with Jennifer Robinson, Stephen Fallert, Natasha Simons, and Al Madocs. Special kudos to the irrepressible Mary Matalin for her support, enthusiasm, and great ideas throughout the project.
Finally, a heartfelt thanks to the many immigrants we have had the honor to meet and know who inspire us and teach us what it means to be American.
JEB BUSH is a former two-term governor of Florida and currently serves as president of the consulting firm of Jeb Bush and Associates. He is chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, a promoter of meaningful K-12 reform in the United States. In addition, he is co-chairman of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and is active in many civic and charitable causes. He resides in Miami with Columba, his wife of 38 years. Follow Jeb Bush on Twitter at @JebBush, or on Facebook at JebBush.
CLINT BOLICK is vice president for litigation at the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix and is a research fellow with Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. One of the nation’s top constitutional litigators, Bolick was chosen by American Lawyer as one of the nation’s Three Lawyers of the Year (2003), and named by Legal Times as One of the 75 Greatest D.C. Lawyers in the Last 50 Years. His previous books include Two-Fer: Electing a President and a Supreme Court and David’s Hammer: The Case for an Activist Judiciary.
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NOTES
> CHAPTER ONE: A PROPOSAL FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM
1. CFR Task Force Report, p. 76.
2. Darrell M. West, Brain Gain (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2010), pp. 103–104.
3. North Star Opinion Research, “National Survey of Registered Voters Regarding Immigration,” September 24–26, 2012.
4. West, Brain Gain, p. 138.
5. Ibid., p. 100.
6. Jeff Jacoby, “To Resolve Immigration Debate, Broaden It—And Abolish Antiquated Quotas,” Boston Globe, July 8, 2012.
7. Roger Daniels, Guarding the Golden Door (New York: Hill & Wang, 2004), p. 265.
8. Edward Alden, The Closing of the American Border (New York: Harper, 2008), conclusion.
9. Ibid., chapter 8.
10. Ibid.
11. Jacoby, “To Resolve Immigration Debate.”
12. West, Brain Gain, p. 34.
13. Office of Immigration Statistics, “Persons Obtaining Legal Permanent Resident Status By Type and Major Class of Admission: Fiscal Years 2002 to 2011.”
14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversity_Immigration_Visa.
15. European Council Directive 2003/86/EC, September 22, 2003.
16. Ian Johnson, “Wary of Future, Professionals Leave China in Record Numbers,” New York Times, November 1, 2012, p. A1.
17. West, Brain Gain, pp. 130–31.
18. Remarks of Caroline Hoxby, Hoover Institution Legal Immigration Conference.
19. CFR Task Force Report, p. 86.
20. Remarks of George Borjas, Hoover Institution Legal Immigration Conference.
21. West, Brain Gain, p. 120.