Mabinty Quarshie writes for the Washington Examiner about the potential impact of one rumored Republican vice presidential candidate.
A key path to former President Donald Trump winning another four years in the White House relies on winning just enough Latino voters to deny President Joe Biden victory in the 2024 race.
Recent polling shows Trump is neck and neck with Biden among Hispanic voters in at least two swing states that will help decide an election expected to be close.
In Arizona, Trump and Biden poll at 46% in a hypothetical matchup, according to a poll from the American Principles Project. In Nevada, Biden is leading Trump by just 2 percentage points, 42% to 40%.
Reports that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), the son of Cuban immigrants, could join Trump’s ticket as his running mate may not necessarily be enough of a factor to win over Latino support, experts told the Washington Examiner.
“Hispanics primarily are going to vote based on the issues, not on if there’s a Hispanic on the ticket,” APP director of Hispanic engagement Alfonso Aguilar said. “That may be exciting for Cuban voters in southern Florida. But for the majority of Hispanics, because it’s not monolithic, it’s not really a huge factor.”
However, other experts said there were some benefits to a Trump-Rubio ticket.
“Rubio would be a substantial asset to President Trump on the campaign trail for several compelling reasons. Chief among them is that the GOP’s recent gains among Hispanic voters has been primarily among English-dominant Hispanics,” said Giancarlo Sopo, a media strategist who helmed Trump’s 2020 Hispanic advertising efforts. “Rubio’s fluency enables direct communication with Spanish-speaking voters, effectively circumventing the liberal Spanish-language media networks. Such a move could be pivotal in unlocking wider support among Hispanic communities and would give the Republican ticket a major advantage over the Biden-Harris campaign.”
