The Republican National Committee (RNC) announced last week that they were pulling out of a GOP primary debate hosted by NBC News and Telemundo.
Telemundo is the second largest Spanish-language network in the United States and canceling a debate broadcast by the network might be seen as a big mistake, but it's more than that.
As you may recall the RNC produced an "autopsy" report following the 2012 election which, among other things, called for greater outreach to minority communities. As Igor Bobic at the Huffington Post reminds us, however, it also called for greater engagement with Hispanic media.
The RNC must put significant effort and resources into reaching out to Hispanic media and news outlets. This needs to be a high-level presence on all Latino media. The RNC must rebuild an updated, working list of Hispanic surrogates, not just RNC staff, to help carry and sell our message to the Hispanic community.
So much for that idea.
Meanwhile, the man who said immigrants are mostly criminals and rapists holds double-digit leads in several early primary states.
I'm not declaring victory today but I have a really hard time picturing a scenario in which things get better for the GOP rather than worse. There's no candidate in the race who can reverse the party's downward spiral among minority voters. Many members of the mainstream political press would have you believe Marco Rubio could accomplish that, but they seem to be basing that idea on little more than his name. Don't forget Rubio voted against his own immigration reform bill and he supports a wide range of terrible social and economic policies that would adversely affect Hispanic and Latino voters just as much as anyone else.
Moreover, Rubio has to actually win the primary before he can magically capture minority voters in the general election. Rubio does not lead in a single state. If the primaries were held tomorrow, Donald Trump would be the party nominee. Trump even holds a 10 point lead over Rubio in his home state of Florida according to the RCP average.