What Draws Latinos to the Trump-Era GOP?

At age 9, Mike Madrid knew he was a Republican. 

Growing up in Moorpark, California, the future political consultant saw firsthand what he calls the “Latinization of America”—a push and pull of cultures out of which emerged a powerful Latino voting bloc. And yet, while the “most rapidly emerging voter group in the country is quantifiably telling the political parties what it needs to hear,” Madrid writes in The Latino Century that “both parties summarily dismiss those concerns because they believe they understand these voters better than those voters understand themselves.” 

Madrid’s new book explores developments within the Latino electorate while also recounting his own political coming-of-age story. It’s an autobiography about how his political present has been shaped by a blended cultural past, as well as an account of the peaks and valleys of Latino political strategy. The first half of his book describes Madrid’s rise from a local congressional campaign volunteer in California to an adviser for George W. Bush’s presidential campaign. But The Latino Century also offers a critique of what Madrid—a co-founder of the Lincoln Project—views as the death spiral of the Republican Party due to Donald Trump’s political rise.

Madrid certainly thinks that both Democrats and Republicans have failed to provide a clear and coherent vision to Latinos, which has led to low voter engagement; less than half of eligible Latino voters will cast a vote, according to one estimate. But although Madrid’s frustration with both parties is evident, it is not equal. Democrats may take Latinos for granted and chase the wrong issues, but Madrid casts the modern Republican Party and its embrace of Trumpism in a more sinister light. Under Trump, he sees a nation led by white supremacy, fear, and anti-Latino sentiment that will cannibalize the party he once knew—and reverse any inroads it made with Latinos. 

Madrid ultimately left the Republican Party because of Trumpism, undoubtedly losing friendships and influence he spent most of his life building. It would be unfair to claim that he abandoned his stated principles in doing so; many other lifelong Republicans joined him. But it is equally unfair for Madrid to claim that those who did not leave the party with him have abandoned their own principles or lack moral courage. There are certainly examples Madrid cites where the GOP did backtrack on its ideals—on immigration, free markets, and the size and scope of government, for example—sometimes boisterously and shamelessly. 

But assuming Madrid’s critique is correct, it does not follow that all of those within the party system are compromised. The book’s villain, the post-2016 Republican Party, has certainly changed since Madrid’s fondly remembered Bush years, but it isn’t some faceless white jumble of bigotry. In fact, Latinos are a diverse and rapidly growing force everywhere, including in the Republican Party. A bloc that was once almost exclusively dominated by Cuban expats grew to include other groups: post-Bolsonaro Brazilians, anti-Maduro Venezuelans, and Uribista Colombians. 

Madrid sees Republicans today as passively gaining ground with Latinos due to Democratic neglect. He highlights that the Democratic Party remains focused on the wrong issues and often takes the Latino vote for granted. Immigration reform, for example, continues to be a central focus of the Democratic Party, even as “Latino voters overall reflect an almost perfect split on some of the most polarizing issues related to the border and immigration.” Put more simply: Immigration is not a top issue for Latinos. But the heated Republican rhetoric of the Trump era isn’t faring much better, either. Where Republicans are winning, according to Madrid, is on the economy, about which “Latinos are much more price-sensitive to inflation and cost-of-living issues.” Reforming the broken immigration system seems less pressing if taxes are going up, retirement seems impossible, and making a monthly rent payment seems up in the air. 

And more importantly, Latinos are not just shifting right due to the failures of Democrats. The efforts of conservative Latinos who still believe that working within the party is the best way forward are also moving swing and even some Democratic Latino voters away from the Democratic party. It is not as if Latinos aren’t running and winning political races as Republicans, or as if state and local organizations aren’t popping up all over the country. In saying that “Latinos are not voting for the Democratic Party so much as against the Republican Party,” Madrid does not consider an alternative—that Latinos are finding something in the party or in aspects of conservatism that is not only worth voting for but worth fighting for. It is not just that Democrats are failing to capture the attention of voters who are now stealing glances across the aisle, but rather that there is something deep within the enduring principles of conservatism that presents not simply another option, but the decidedly better option.

And perhaps if he saw that, Madrid would pay more attention to the organizations and individuals emerging as powerful Latino voices in politics to defend the very same values that he believed were dead. Specifically Latino-serving organizations like the LIBRE Initiative, the Hispanic Leadership Fund, and Bienvenido advance and educate on issues like increasing educational choice, entrepreneurship, and constitutionally limited government. Countless state-level organizations have become places where conservative Latinos engage, educate, and mobilize to bring more Latinos into politics. 

Some reformers continue working within the Republican Party, and others work outside it. Whether or not those voices will work as allies or adversaries—or whether they might revitalize principles among the electorate—remains to be seen. Madrid does tepidly grant that there are some moderating influences in the party, including people like California Reps. Mike Garcia, John Duarte, and David Valadao. But he does not take the extra step to acknowledge that this is not happening randomly. Forces within the Trump-era conservative movement and, yes, even the GOP are working toward a clear vision. 

Reading Mike Madrid’s Latino Century is a two-for-one special, blending personal reflections with actionable political strategies. It may be that this divide leads Madrid into contradiction with himself. Latinos have been historically tied to one party, but they have more in common with the other. The Republican Party may be shifting toward a pessimistic, anti-immigrant message, but that allegedly does not work for increasingly (though still not mostly) right-leaning Latino voters. And even if, as Madrid claims, Trump is the downfall of the party, that does not change that more and more young Latino voices are being heard on the right than ever before.