Latino Views on the 2016 GOP Field: Who Can Actually Win the Latino Vote?

By Matt Barreto
As the field of possible GOP contenders for the White House start to take shape, it is important to assess what Latino voters think about the potential presidential candidates, if they even know who they are, and how they can possibly position themselves to court the Latino vote. There is no question that Republicans will lose the White House again in 2016 if they repeat the mistakes of Mitt "I would veto the Dream Act" Romney and lose three-quarters of the Latino vote. GOP Chairman Reince Preibus has said future Republican candidates "must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform," while former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told the Washington Post: "It was such a clear two-by-four to the head in the 2012 election," referring to Mitt Romney's low share of the Hispanic vote and poor positioning on immigration, concluding that "Republicans could never win again if that's the status."
Have Republican presidential hopefuls changed and embraced a kinder, gentler approach to immigration reform and Latino outreach? Latino Decisions has been asking voters how much they know, and what they think about the possible candidates in 2016. Here we review the findings of recent polling on Latino attitudes towards the Republican field:
Let's start with an older look, from back in July 2013 before too much jostling had started. Latino Decisions asked favorability ratings on seven GOP contenders and the biggest take away was back then, Latino voters had very low levels of information about the GOP hopefuls. Among those who did give an informed answer, Chris Christie led the pack with a 38% favorable rating versus a 12% unfavorable rating. Christie likely benefited from being in the news in 2013 during his gubernatorial re-election contest in which he ran virtually unopposed. Still a whopping 50% of Latino registered voters nationwide said they had never heard of, or had no opinion of Chris Christie. Likewise, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez score a net positive approval with 25% favorable against 12% unfavorable, however she was the least known of all the names we tested with 63% giving no answer when prompted about Governor Martinez. Looking at Latino views towards the GOP field back in July 2013, none appeared to be runaway favorites to back inroads with the Latino vote in 2016. Jeb Bush 27% favorable, Rand Paul just 17% favorable. Even Marco Rubio stood at just 31% favorable.