As one of the great states of the Union, Texas has always marked tendencies in politics and culture. At the moment, an important element that can determine the composition of the political parties that fight for the citizens’ votes is at play in Texas where the Republican Party faces the challenge of gaining the support of the Hispanic electorate. Addressing this issue is especially important for Texas because this is one of the biggest states with more electoral votes and a huge, growing Hispanic population.
Getting the support of the Hispanic electorate is increasingly a priority for any candidate that wants to win elections across the country, but especially in Texas. Unfortunately, Texas’ Republican Party is at a disadvantage because of limited support from Hispanic voters, something that we see in the primaries currently taking place. This low level of enthusiasm has a lot to do with representation. In Texas, there are almost no GOP has no Hispanic officeholders outside the judiciary nor Hispanic congressperson and as a general rule the GOP presents a very limited number of Hispanic candidates for state and legislative offices.

This is a serious problem that must be solved because the truth can’t be avoided: at present 38 percent of Texas’ population are Hispanics, and by 2040 they will be the majority in Texas, and by 2060 Hispanics will form the absolute majority of Texas voters. This is in direct contradiction to Hispanic’s current political representation with the GOP: of 95 Republican members of the state Congress and Senate in Texas, not a one is Hispanic, and neither are any of the 22 members of the Texas delegation in the United States Congress.
This is a warning sign and » Houston, we have a problem.». Further complicating the issue is Hispanic representation in Texas’ Democratic party where 34 of the 84 Democratic members of Congress and Senate are Hispanics, as are 12 Texas Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
At the state level, only one of the nine Republican officeholders (Railroad Commissioner Victor Carrillo) is Hispanic and Carillo will leave his office next year after losing his primary last March against David Porter. The poorly disguised discrimination that tends to be practiced against Hispanic candidates in favor of Caucasians, is one of many practices that the Republican Party will have to correct if it wants to catch the next big voter train, a train that has required stops in Hispanic stations and decidedly supports the large number of qualified Hispanic candidates.
Some facts couldn’t be more obvious. In the 2008 presidential elections, two thirds of Texas Hispanics voted for the Democratic candidate Barack Obama and only a third supported the Republican candidate John McCain. Recently, during the Republican primaries to elect a candidate for Governor, only 15 percent of voters were Hispanics. Not even in the very Hispanic county of Hidalgo (where Hispanics are 90 percent of the population), only 38 percent voters in the Republican primaries were Hispanics.
Even more troubling is the fact Hispanics’ presence won’t be greatly increased after the legislative elections in November, as only seven of the 128 Republican candidates for Congress and Senate in Texas are Hispanics and only one has a real chance of winning. Furthermore there are no Hispanic candidates for non-judicial state offices. The situation is hardly better at a congressional level, where a meager four of the 32 party candidates for the lower federal house are Hispanics. All of them are competing against current favorites. Realistically, the most we can hope for is that one Republican Hispanic congressperson.

Another explanation for the limited Hispanic support that Texas Republicans garner, apart from the limited representation of Hispanics in the party itself, is the current social dialogue about immigration. Republicans haven’t known how to connect with large portions of the Hispanic electorate, especially younger voters. To its detriment, the party hasn’t explained correctly party ideas and arguments and as a result is often portrayed as an enemy to Hispanic interests when in reality the Republican party line defends them much more effectively than the Democrats, who nonetheless, seem to have known better how to sell their political policies and ideas.
The majority and support that the Republican Party currently counts on in Texas could disappear beyond a new horizon in a few years if the party doesn’t take immediate measures to increase Hispanic support through more Hispanic candidatures, and a larger effort to effectively explain the party’s political arguments and proposals to Hispanic voters, without radical policies, and with a clear focus on better interracial integration.