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After 2012 results, PA GOP brings Hispanic Inclusion Director on Board

PAGOP-logoAs minority turnout for Republican candidates lines up to be a big issue for the 2014 and 2016 elections, the Pennsylvania GOP has hired a Hispanic Inclusion Director.

Antori Miranda, who PA GOP chairman Rob Gleason announced as the state Republican party’s Hispanic Inclusion Director Monday, comes from a history in local, state and federal campaigns. In 2012, Miranda worked on the presidential campaigns for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Herman Cain, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and eventual Republican nominee and former Gov. Mitt Romney.

For Romney, Miranda worked as Deputy Hispanic Coalitions Director for the state of Florida.

According to the PA GOP release, Miranda will build a Hispanic engagement team that will build a grassroots infrastructure to engage with voters through community outreach in the commonwealth.

“Our Party is working with renewed vigor to better communicate with Pennsylvania’s growing Latino-Hispanic community,” Gleason said in the release. “Additionally, we are working with candidates like Danny Alvarez for Philadelphia District Attorney, Ricardo Nieves for Reading City Council and Chris Morales for Bethlehem City Council, each of whom are helping to deliver our Party’s core messages of individual liberty and economic prosperity to new communities across the Commonwealth.”

Miranda’s hire appears to be in response to a lack of support for Republican candidates from Hispanic voters, as identified by the Republican National Committee’s 2012 “autopsy” on what went wrong in the 2012 election, dubbed the Growth and Opportunity Project.

“It is imperative that the RNC changes how it engages with Hispanic communities,” the report said.

In an October 2012 Pew Research poll, Pennsylvania’s Hispanic population is the 14th-largest in the nation, making up 1.4 percent of the country’s Hispanic population. Three hundred and fifty thousand Hispanics are registered eligible voters in the state, making up some 4 percent of the state’s electorate.

In 2012, Hispanic voters sided almost 75 percent with President Barack Obama, according to a 2013 Latino Decisions poll.

RNC Chairman Reince Preibus weighed in on the PA GOP’s announcement, calling the hire unprecedented.

“Today’s announcement is unprecedented,” Preibus said. “This off-cycle effort will ensure our message of ‘opportunity for all’ reaches voters. We are building a ground game that will allow us to compete for every voter and will outlast any one cycle or campaign. I’m certain with these early and unprecedented investments we can achieve Republican victories up and down the ballot now and for years to come.”

4 Responses

  1. It’s kind of adorable watching them scramble, but it seems like a band-aid that ignores the underlying problem of the GOP’s anti-immigration race-baiting that has poisoned the well. It worked really well at helping to get the GOP’s core demographic of white, middle- and lower-class Americans out to the polls for so many years, but, eventually, you have to pay the piper. Perhaps this signals a coming pivot with PA Republicans advocating more sensible policies (well, maybe not Lou Barletta), but something tells me this is mere window dressing.

  2. Dear Luke Bernstein, Brabender/Corbett staffer and nephew of Lou Barletta: Luke, Chairman Gleason is confusing me. I thought we aren’t allowed to care about the little brown parasites? Please give me today’s talking points before I make a mistake. Is this PAGOP inclusion effort an admission that Lou Barletta has hurt the Republican brand in PA?

  3. Dear Chairman Rob Gleason, PAs #! Race Hustler: I know our party is working hard to protect us from illegal immigrants-God Bless Lou Barletta. Maybe I’m a DREAMER but now we love illegal immigrants? I know we all love the white folk. Are illegal immigrants going to protect the White Folk? Renee Amoore, ride the Underground Railroad out of State Street before it’s not too late.

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