If Republicans work with Hispanics, Democrats will never return to power

OPINION:

“Latinos are Republican. They just don’t know it yet” is a prophecy by President Ronald Reagan — one that has been hidden, much to the misfortune of the United States, over the past few decades.

Media outlets have been determined to deceive Hispanic voters, while the Democratic Party has dedicated millions of dollars to manipulating the Spanish-language information that these voters consume. Meanwhile, the Republican Party has been extremely negligent in reaching this minority group, both in English and Spanish.

Fortunately, the negligence and mistakes of the Republican Party have been overshadowed for now by the mediocrity of the Biden administration’s handling of economic issues, security, appeasement of Latin American dictators and, of course, the leftward drift of a Democratic Party that has abandoned the political center.

Many of today’s Democrats seem to resemble a block of clones of progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rather than a pro-America, centrist party like the one of President John F. Kennedy.

But the stars won’t always align in Republicans’ favor, as they did in this election. Democrats won’t always have a lackluster candidate such as Vice President Kamala Harris, and Republicans won’t always have an icon — likely the most famous person in the world right now — like President-elect Donald Trump. So yes, we can celebrate, but let’s start planning for the future.

In this election, 46% of Hispanics backed Mr. Trump, a massive increase. I don’t mean to sound picky, but those numbers could have been even better with improved communication aimed at Hispanics of diverse backgrounds.

Although it may be hard for the average Washington-based American to understand, Hispanics are not a monolithic group. You can’t address Cubans, Venezuelans or Nicaraguans in the same way you would a Mexican or Puerto Rican.

There has also been minimal investment from the GOP and related groups in spreading conservative information in Spanish, even though many Hispanics who don’t speak English also vote.

We have CNN en Espanol, Univision, Telemundo, DW, France 24, EFE, The Associated Press and other major liberal-leaning Western media flooding the Spanish-language information channels, demonizing Mr. Trump and conservatives day and night.

How many mainstream conservative media outlets are there in Spanish? None. Yet the majority of Hispanic men voted for Mr. Trump. Now, imagine what would happen if we could just balance that scale a bit.

But it doesn’t end there. Through Mr. Trump’s campaign, numerous communication mistakes were made in addressing Hispanic voters. Sure, there were successes, but they were mostly due to Mr. Trump’s personality rather than a planned campaign strategy.

Meanwhile, certain actions may have reduced support for the GOP and emboldened the Democrats, such as the unfortunate joke about Puerto Rico, Mr. Trump’s negative comments about Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, the lack of a clear and precise message on the situations in Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua and the absence of a coherent communication policy for Hispanics.

That is all in the past now, and Republicans won the election. But we should already be thinking about 2026. Those elections are a perfect opportunity for Republicans on a national level to understand that Hispanics can overwhelmingly support them with just a bit more effort. Hispanics share their values, beliefs and principles; we just need more effective communication between both sides.

Hispanics assimilate into American culture better than anyone, respect the nation’s history and want to contribute to this country’s growth. Republicans need to improve communication with Hispanic voters, and everyone will benefit. Republicans will no longer lose elections, and together, we will steer this country in the right direction.

Hispanics have become the largest minority group in the electoral census. Hispanics gave Mr. Trump their massive and majority support in key states including Michigan. If efforts are sustained and more Hispanics discover their place in the GOP rather than with progressive Democrats, the political, demographic and cultural map will change for the better in this country.

This, in turn, will force Democrats to realign with the center and abandon the radical policies they have embraced in recent decades. Republicans will win, Hispanics will win and the United States will win.

Together, we can make America great again.

• Emmanuel Rincon is a lawyer, writer and political commentator, CEO of the political consulting firm Regional Renaissance and the author of eight books.