Republican strategist and CNN’s resident anti-Trump comic Ana Navarro predicted a “historic low” Latino vote for Donald Trump and fantasized about the “sweet, sweet justice” that would be served if the anti-Trump Latino vote clinches the White House for Clinton.
“Um, Ana Navarro, you’re not a Trump supporter?” anchor Anderson Cooper asked sarcastically.
“I’m not, but I’ll tell you what I am,” Navarro responded. “I am a college-educated Latina.”
.@ananavarro: “It would be sweet, sweet justice if tonight it was the Latino vote that defeated Donald Trump” https://t.co/ZTdYJw8TuU
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) November 8, 2016
Polling data would seem to back up Navarro’s turnout prediction. A poll released Tuesday put support for Donald Trump among Latinos at 18 percent. And, as Navarro pointed out, as the share of Latinos voting in elections has increased overall in recent years—and spiked this year, a trend that Trump tried to abuse the court system to stem—the share of their votes that go to Republican candidates decreases.
In 2004, George W. Bush won about 40 percent of the Latino vote; that dropped to 31 percent for John McCain in 2008 and, four years later, 27 percent for Mitt Romney. Romney’s dismal showing prompted the GOP to conduct an autopsy that concluded the party needed to do more and better outreach to voters of color or risk dying off.
We know how well that’s turned out.
Sam Stecklow is the Weekend Editor for Fusion.
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