Opinion Today: 10 Latino voters on the G.O.P.’s appeal

Our latest focus group explores political shifts among Latino voters.

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story October 19, 2022 By Adrian J. Rivera Editorial Assistant, Opinion In recent years — amid talk of border walls, invective against Mexican immigrants, recordings of children wailing at the border after having been taken from their mothers and news reports about a shooting at an El Paso Walmart that left 23 dead — pundits, politicians and others across the United States seem to be paying a lot more attention to the Latino vote. It was especially striking to some observers that even after the vitriol of Donald Trump's presidency, more Hispanic people voted for Trump in 2020 than in 2016. To try to make sense of this data point, Times Opinion spoke with 10 Latino voters from Arizona, Florida and Texas. We wanted to meet with people who identified as Republicans, Democrats and independents, but who, regardless of their party affiliation, were open to voting for a Republican candidate in this year's midterm elections. Ronald Reagan once said that Latinos were Republicans — "they just don't know it yet." This focus group, in which most of the participants thought that Republicans were stronger on issues such as crime and safety, guns, the economy, immigration and national security, suggests that he might have been on to something. Only on abortion and health care did the participants think that Democrats were stronger. That might bode well for Democrats this year, who've sought to make the midterm elections in part about the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but long term, Republicans have a serious opportunity to attract more and more Latinos to their ranks. Meet the full focus group here. Illustrations by Lucinda Rogers 'We're Not All Democrats': 10 Latino Voters on the G.O.P.'s Appeal Ten Latino voters discuss their views on the Republican and Democratic Parties and the efforts — or lack thereof — to win their vote. 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