Strassel: GOP Lessons in the San Joaquin A Californian shows the way forward for the GOP and Hispanic voters.
By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
Imagine a congressional district in California, a state where the GOP last week suffered a political bloodbath. Imagine this district voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and has a significant Democratic voter advantage. Imagine, too, that 70% of its residents are Hispanic.
Now imagine that last week, a first-time Republican candidate trounced his Hispanic Democratic opponent, capturing 60% of the vote. Pure fantasy, right?
Pure reality, as it happens. In January, David Valadao will come to Washington to represent California's 21st District, nestled in the San Joaquin Valley. In a state where Republicans suffered at least four incumbent losses on Nov. 6, Mr. Valadao was the party's only offensive victory, flipping a seat that hasn't elected a Republican in 20 years, and doing it with strong support from the district's majority Hispanic voters.
His win offers valuable lessons to a Republican Party that is rightly alarmed by its downward slide among Hispanics, which hit a new low last week with Mitt Romney's dismal 27% share of the Hispanic vote. The rap—the outright fear—is that the GOP is too white, too right and too late to make gains among this increasingly powerful voting group. Mr. Valadao's victory proves that isn't true, provided the GOP takes some obvious steps.
Topping the list has to be a new resolve to nurture and recruit candidates who understand their constituents and can connect with Hispanics. Mr. Valadao, 35, grew up in the 21st District, the son of Portuguese immigrants. He speaks English, Portuguese and Spanish. Before winning a seat in the California Assembly two years ago, he was a local dairy farmer.
His farming background counted big in the 21st District, which is heavily blue-collar, with a huge farming industry and oil-drilling sector. What Hispanic and non-Hispanic residents there share is a growing fury over federal, state and green-group actions that have cut off water for farmers, made life tougher for drillers, driven up prices, and led overall to some of the highest unemployment rates in the country.
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The Bakersfield Californian/ZUMAPRESS.com California Republican David Valadao (center) thanks his volunteers, Nov. 6.
Democratic Rep. Jim Costa had represented this district since 2004. But faced with voter frustration over his lack of leadership—and redistricting that made the 21st a bit less Democratic—Mr. Costa early this year jumped ship to run for a safer, neighboring seat. Democrats ultimately chose John Hernandez, the president of the local Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, to be their candidate.
In a district with a double-digit Democratic voter advantage, where more than 50% of registered voters are Hispanic, Mr. Hernandez should have been well-positioned. Instead, while the Democrat waxed lyrical about Sacramento's expensive bullet-train project and other liberal priorities, it was Mr. Valadao's family and agricultural background that gave him credibility to connect with voters on jobs, water issues, health care, and gas prices.
The Republican kept the focus on those topics by embracing the immigration issue early on—a second lesson for the GOP. Mr. Valadao, who likes to note that his own parents are immigrants, made clear his frustrations with a broken immigration system that separates families, keeps people waiting decades for visas, robs employers of workers and leaves nobody happy.
These are the day-to-day concerns of many Hispanics and of many employers in the 21st District—not to mention the roots of the broader illegal-immigration issue—and Mr. Valadao's promise to push for a total overhaul moved the debate beyond flash-point terms like "amnesty" or "border security."
The Republican credits his success in talking about immigration to his "common-sense approach," though colleagues note that a big part of it was simply his tone. His willingness to tackle immigration reassured Hispanic voters, freeing them to concentrate on even more pressing policy concerns.
While "we were asked about immigration a lot," Mr. Valadao told me in an interview Wednesday, "it wasn't the top issue. The focus of voters in our district was jobs, water for our farmers, lower energy costs, putting kids through school, living life freely."
Which gets to the third lesson: Political parties at their peril lump Hispanic voters into a monolithic voting bloc.
"When Hispanics work in the private sector or own a business, they are receptive to our message of jobs, low taxes, and free enterprise," says Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, who represents a neighboring San Joaquin district that also has many Hispanic residents who work in the private sector.
The GOP message may never resonate as strongly with urban Hispanics who work for the government or are in unions. The party would do well to recognize the distinction and figure out where it is best positioned to build support.
Mr. Valadao isn't the first Republican to have cracked the code. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, New Mexico Gov. Susannah Martinez, Texas Sen.-elect Ted Cruz—all have demonstrated the ability to attract Hispanic voters with the GOP message. Yet these office-holders are too few and far between. If the Republican Party wants Hispanic votes, it will have to work for them. The good news, as Mr. Valadao shows, is that it is eminently possible.
Write to kim@wsj.com |
