The 2013 Presidential election was won by President Barack Obama thanks in big part to the Hispanic voting bloc. The youth vote, female vote and overall electorate went down for Obama in this election compared to the 2008 election. The only group that actually increased was the Hispanic voting bloc.
Obama made strong hints in his victory speech on Tuesday night that the next big item domestically will be comprehensive immigration reform. The immigration issue, unlike that of healthcare, is one that succeed or fail is a win-win one for Democrats, both politically and substantively.
The trajectory for Republicans at this point is grim and they might only stop the slide by choosing a standard-bearer like Marco Rubio the Florida Senator. George Bush was able to get 40% of the vote from Hispanics thanks to his immigration reform commitment and religious values.
John McCain in 2008 won 31% of the Hispanic vote and on Tuesday, Romney was able to win just 27%. What makes that number even worse for Romney is that the Hispanic electorate has doubled in size from only 20 years ago and accounts for more than 10% of the total electorate.
It is hard to believe after hearing the tough stance Republicans took on undocumented immigrants during their primaries that at one time they were quite receptive to that voting bloc. Ronald Reagan granted amnesty to more than 3 million undocumented immigrants and with Bush and McCain Republicans sought a balanced solution for the illegal immigration problem. However, that was broken when Romney suggested undocumented immigrants “self-deport” to fix the growing problem.
