Record number of Hispanic Republicans run for New Mexico House seats

New Mexico Republicans are attracting a document variety of Hispanic candidates for state Home seats, one other signal the GOP is aggressively courting Latino voters this yr.

Why it issues: New Mexico has the best proportion of Hispanics of any state. It is also dominated by Democrats, who management the governor’s workplace, legislature, two U.S. Senate seats and two of three Home seats. However a nationwide, multi-year effort to recruit various, native GOP slates is exhibiting outcomes.

Driving the information: An Axios evaluation of New Mexico candidates discovered that 18 Hispanic Republicans are in search of seats within the state’s 70-member decrease chamber the place Democrats maintain a 45-24-1 majority.

• The Hispanic GOP candidates are working towards Democrats in aggressive rural and concrete seats the place the outcomes are laborious to foretell after redistricting.

The massive image: The spike in Latino GOP candidates in New Mexico displays broader Republican recruiting efforts throughout the nation.

• The Nationwide Republican Congressional Committee advised Axios that 103 Hispanic GOP candidates are in search of U.S. Home seats this yr — a document for the celebration.
• Texas Republicans are hoping to ship the state’s first Latina Republicans to Congress with Monica De La Cruz and Mayra Flores difficult Democrats amid political shifts in South Texas.
• James Wesolek, a spokesman for the Republican Get together of Texas, mentioned the celebration in Texas shouldn’t be holding monitor of candidates’ race, intercourse, or age in its state Home races.

What they’re saying: “Hispanic voters are realizing that the Democrats are transferring additional to the left nationally and within the state, and that the conservative Hispanic voters align with us far more,” Steve Pearce, chair of the Republican Get together of New Mexico, advised Axios.

• Pearce mentioned New Mexico Republicans started recruiting Hispanics in 2017 to run for county chairs and county commissioner seats and now a few of these officers are working for state Home seats.

Sure, however: Democratic Get together of New Mexico spokesperson Delaney Corcoran mentioned 18 GOP candidates is hardly a groundswell and that folks of coloration stay underrepresented within the New Mexico GOP.

• “Proper now 37 out of 47 Hispanic members of the New Mexico legislature are Democrats, and this yr greater than 40 Hispanic Democrats are working for state Home,” Corcoran mentioned.
• “Whereas Democrats have been centered on the sorts of kitchen-table points that make a distinction to all New Mexicans, Republicans have been spewing extremist rhetoric, sowing division, and alienating New Mexicans.”

New Mexico Democratic political guide Sisto Abeyta mentioned Democrats in New Mexico and different states must dedicate extra sources to rural areas the place Hispanic voters have been ignored.

• “In recent times, we’re seeing extra [Hispanic Republican] candidates coming from rural areas and communities of poverty.”

Go deeper: Inflation hits Latino assist for Democrats, ballot exhibits

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