A Democrat report indicates party panic over far-left initiatives that Republicans exposed as inconsistent with working class and Latino voters’ values in the 2020 election cycle.
The report created by three Democrat groups, Third Way, Collective PAC, and Latino Victory Fund, asserts Republican messaging is carving inroads with voters, which “moderate Democrats struggled to counter since some within the Party identify as Democratic socialists.”
The report states, “The socialism attack… hurt campaigns in states and districts with immigrant populations that fled socialist governments, including among Venezuelan, Cuban, Vietnamese, and Filipino voters.”
The report’s authors also believe Republican messaging tying socialist policies of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) were impactful in swing districts.
“This ‘potpourri’ included efforts to tie candidates to socialism, Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, Nancy Pelosi, AOC, and ‘the Squad’ (in these cases all framed as equally radical). These attacks were used to a greater or lesser degree depending on the unique constituencies of a given district,” the report explains. “There was no one best way to counter these attacks nor was there a clear agreement even that we should address the issue in paid communications.”
The report appears to be correct, as South Florida, for instance, was largely flipped Republican in the 2020 House races due to concerns over socialism.
“Unfortunately, the Democratic Party has in some ways lost touch with our electorate,” former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-FL) told the New York Times. “There is this assumption that of course people of color, or the working class, are going to vote for Democrats. We can never assume anything.”
The report also notes that Democrats were successfully framed as anti-law and order.
“The GOP consistently framed the moment in ‘law and order’ terms, which resonated with voters on both the right and the left including Latino men and women,” the report warned. “Based on interviews, data analysis, polling, and ads analysis, where Defund the Police had a significant impact, it was as a part of culture-based attack on Democrats that sought to stoke fears among voters about any candidate with a ‘D’ after their name.”
The report additionally noted, “Turnout among Latino voters grew dramatically in 2020 – rising Latino voters by more than 30% compared to 2016” and “In FL – 26 Republicans took a big lead in voter registration” which “saw higher turnout among Latino voters, and netted more of their support.”
Breitbart News reported May 11 Catalist election data from 2020 shows former President Donald Trump increased his margins with females and all races and demographics, except white men.
The finding reads in part:
Along with massive increases in turnout, Latino vote share as a whole swung towards Trump by 8 points in two-way vote share compared to 2016, though Biden-Harris still enjoyed solid majority (61%) support among this group.
The Democrat report seems to support the Catalist’s data.
“Despite increased Latino turnout overall, Democrats saw a significant dip in support in places with high concentrations of Latino and Hispanic voters including in south FL and west TX,” the report concludes.
The post-election data mirrors pre-election data. Breitbart News reported in September 2020 only about 25 percent of Latinos identify with the Democrats’ radical identity politics, “while more than 60 percent of Latinos favor Donald Trump’s populist, pro-American pitch.”
Anecdotal evidence suggests the same. In October of 2020, Breitbart News border reporter Ildefonso Ortiz and international news editor Frances Martel discussed the increasing popularity of conservative ideology within the Hispanic community.
The two observed “the growing recognition among Latinos that the core of their culture and identity is fundamentally incompatible with the goals and values of the radical left… Mexican culture and values are ‘more conservative than what Democrats present,’ and that the Democrat approach to molding Hispanic identity to the party’s benefit is ‘the definition of racism.'”