Poll: Latinos Have "Natural Home" In GOP

WASHINGTON – From immigration to the definition of marriage, new polling has confirmed that Latinos and Republicans agree on a variety of important issues, and that Latinos don’t agree with Senator Harry Reid and his party’s priorities. Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles welcomed this news by calling upon the leadership of the GOP to better reflect the conservative values and priorities of the citizens they represent, including Latinos.

“These findings,” said Aguilar, “show just how out of touch Senator Harry Reid was when he said he ‘didn’t know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican.’  In fact, Latinos have a natural home in the Republican party.   Now it is up to the Republican leadership to make Latinos welcome in the GOP, uniting around traditional American values such as family, marriage, entrepreneurship and economic liberty.”

Aguilar pointed to a July 9-14 poll conducted by Penn Schoen Berland for Politico which found that 59 percent of Republicans want Congress to pass “comprehensive immigration law guidelines now,” close to Democrats (61%) and Independents (61%).

In the same vein, Public Policy Polling has released the results of its most recent poll which found that Latinos continue to be more conservative on the question of defending traditional marriage than the general population (only 27% of Latinos are in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage, compared to 33% of the general population).

 “Latinos believe in the traditional definition of marriage and strong family values, and a majority of Republicans want Congress to pass immigration reform,” said Aguilar.  “This sounds like a perfect political marriage of values and purpose to me, and this should be appealing to the leaders of the Republican party as well.

“Now is the time for the leadership of the GOP to energetically champion the conservative principles of Latinos and other patriotic Americans, and to show Harry Reid that Latinos have a natural place in the Republican party.”

The Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, an initiative of the American Principles Project, promotes conservative values and ideals within the Latino community and works to integrate Latinos into fuller and more active participation and leadership in the conservative movement.