Jorge Ramos: GOP ‘Doing Something Right’ with Two Latino POTUS Candidates 

Univision anchor Jorge Ramos conceded that even though the mainstream media want to criticize Republicans on diversity issues, the GOP is “doing something right” by having two presidential candidates (Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio) of Hispanic descent.

Speaking at Harvard’s Institute of Politics on Tuesday evening, Ramos said that “for the first time in history, there are two Hispanic candidates running for president.” He said regardless of the criticism Republicans receive from the mainstream press, “the Republicans have been doing something right that they have two Hispanic candidates.”

“And the Democrats don’t have a single Hispanic candidate for this election,” Ramos said.

He mentioned that if Cruz or Rubio is on the top of the 2016 ticket, it will be very interesting to see if Hispanic Democrats vote for a Latino candidate. Ramos noted that “the majority of Latinos vote for Democrats” and the “majority of Latinos are of Mexican origin” while Rubio and Cruz are both of Cuban descent. He said Latino voters will be faced with the question about whether they should vote for a Latino candidate just because he is Hispanic.

Ramos, who never pretends to be “objective” on the amnesty issue and, unlike some of his less honest peers in the mainstream press, notes that he is an unabashed supporter of comprehensive amnesty legislation, insisted that Republicans would get more Latino votes if the party passes comprehensive amnesty legislation.

“Ronald Reagan used to say: Latinos are Republicans–they just don’t know it yet,” he said, noting that Latinos are still “very traditional” regarding issues like abortion, religious freedom, gay marriage, and the importance of family.

Ramos said “those values are something that Republicans could have used a long time ago.” But he claimed though “it’s great that we share your values,” in the current political environment, “you can have the best economic plan, the best jobs plan,” but if Latinos think Republicans are saying “get out of this country,” then “we’re not going to listen.”

He said the immigration issue is “so close to our heart that we can’t put it aside.”

When an audience questioner asked Ramos, who earlier conceded that most Latinos vote for Democrats, whether a comprehensive amnesty bill would up end up creating more Democrats in the end (implying that amnesty legislation would be suicide for the GOP), Ramos semi-punted the question before again insisting that Republicans would gain more Latino voters with an amnesty bill.

Ramos claimed that Republicans cannot win the White House without Latinos (the Washington Post and the New York Times have both published studies showing the GOP will have a pathway to the White House in 2016 and beyond even without massive increases in the Latino vote) and said GOP candidates need 33% of the Latino vote to get to the White House.