Republican National Committee operatives have kicked off a seven-state campaign aimed at drawing in Hispanics and showing them the GOP is the best political home to uphold their interests.
Newly hired RNC staffers are rolling out grass-roots campaigns in California, Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Texas and Virginia, The Hill reported.
The hope is to set up a “year-round presence in Latino neighborhoods,” the RNC said. And the campaign is on the fast track to grow, with plans to expand into 11 more states before the end of 2014.
The campaign comes in response to the Republican Party establishment’s insistence that moving to the center on some issues would help win Hispanic votes, as well as to President Obama’s winning of 71 percent of that ethnic voting bloc in 2012, compared with the 27 percent won by Republican Mitt Romney.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus called the campaign “unprecedented” for Republicans. Tea-party-type conservatives say such reach-outs are based on false premises — that Republicans should not change or tone down certain core principles, such as immigration control, to pursue votes that probably wouldn’t culminate anyway.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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