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Republicans have lost a big opportunity with minority voters

Nov. 13, 2012 10:39am Meredith Jessup

I have long believed that social issues including gay marriage would be a key for Republicans to connect with minority Latino and African American voters. Connecting with these voters on issues of morality and faith represented a huge opportunity to make inroads with a voting bloc Democrats have dominated for decades.

But since President Barack Obama’s “evolution” and new-found support for gay marriage, the tides seem to be changing and the GOP may have missed its window of opportunity:

When California voted for a gay marriage ban in 2008, 70 percent of African Americans voted for it, and when North Carolina overwhelmingly passed a similar measure earlier this year, many cited the black vote as a big reason. (Shortly after the ban passed in North Carolina, President Obama came out in favor of gay marriage.)

On Tuesday in Maryland, though, 46 percent of African Americans supported gay marriage. And according to national exit polls, 52 percent of both black and Latino voters who turned out Tuesday said they support gay marriage in their states.

(The largest shift came from black women, of which 59 percent now support gay marriage, compared to 42 percent of black men — a huge gender gap.)

That’s a big turnaround from recent years. In 2008 and 2009, a Pew Research Center survey showed just 28 percent of African Americans and 39 percent of Latinos backed gay marriage. And by 2010, support in those communities was rising slower than it was among whites.

The exit polls suggest both groups have now moved in large numbers toward supporting gay marriage. Their shifts may not be bigger than other demographics, but the fact that they are shifting at all (after sticking to their opposition) is what’s really significant here.

And given their affinity for President Obama — 93 percent of African Americans and 71 percent of Latinos voted for the president — it’s not unreasonable to think that his support had an impact.

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Comments (8)

K-Bob
Posted on November 14, 2012 at 6:28am
Pandering to special interests never gains anything for the GOP. Several pundits have trotted out all the stats you need to see to show this is true. Including Pat & Stu.

Look, if ending slavery, getting the 15th Amendment passed, getting civil rights legislation passed over the objection of Democrats, and NOT being the party of the KKK doesn’t make the Republican party worthy of a black vote, nothing will.

Same holds true for any special interest group.

Liberty is about the sovereignty of the individual. Interest groups are afraid to let their constituents stand on their own two feet. The good news is, once a man understands what liberty is about, he never again trusts the Democrat party.

The Republicans also bear close watching, but at least that’s where you find the most pro-liberty people.

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- Chatikh
  Posted on November 14, 2012 at 1:29pm
  You fail to understand that the old Republican party and the old Democratic party were very different from the parties of today.
  
  The republican party was the party that outlawed slavery, and segregationists were largely democratic voters, you are right. But in the decades after WWII, democrats like Kennedy started supporting equality and desegregation, and republicans decided to run in favor of racism by supporting “states rights” and “individual rights”, by thinking that it is a person’s right to refuse business to black people, and civil rights shouldn’t be decided by the federal government. This is when the parties became what they are today.
  
  It’s interesting that things are repeating themselves, with the gay rights movement. Democrats are in favor of equality and are on the right side of history, and republicans are again on the side of inequality, ignorance, and homophobia/heterosexism in the name of “individual rights” (right to refuse gays) and states’ rights “right of the states to refuse equal marriage”. I wonder what will happen as the population as a whole becomes more enlightened. Will people flock to the democratic party, forcing the republican party to change its views? Or will the republican party change on its own, knowing that they will be viewed as favoring exclusion and prejudice?
  
  Report this comment
PerturbedChurchLady
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 9:57pm
We’re black and among the few who DID NOT vote for Obama because of his race or any other reason. Our pastor and mechanic are black, our dentist is Asian and our baker is Jewish, our handyman is white. The one we felt was better suited to have ideas on how to even remotely began a recovery in the economy was the Mormon. None of these were selected for their race, just proficiency/experience in his/her craft. AAs like us are lessor in number and presently of non-effect. This talk of all blacks being ‘all in’ for the Demo. platform is a lie. Its a damned lie straight out of the pit. As more tribulation from hell rains down, some will soon regret not putting God first; as all the signs will increase,

AAs who ‘say’ they answer to God for their souls, will have to do so soon, (2 Cor 5:10); God said it, I didn’t. Also, they will have to account for “standing and being numbered” among those who are taking the genocide of abortion to an unparalleled level of depravity and slaughter. Also for embracing the cult of homosexuality; closing their eyes and betraying what God calls evil, and now exalting it as good,(Isaiah 5:20). If one claims Christ and his kingdom, . . that AFFILIATION and citizenry out ranks any other in loyalty here on this earth. Jesus said that, (Matt 10:32-35.)

Our pastor preached this before the election. “Let God be true and every other man, (even PO), . . . . well you all know how this one scripture text ends. ..(Romans 3:4).

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taintso
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 3:09pm
We have lost this country to the majority of the minorities, the moral majority has rolled over, God help us.

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Chatikh
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 1:32pm
You could say white people are a perversion of black people, when in actuality it’s just a separate form of the same thing. The genes that work to instill sexual orientation exist in all humans, so all women have the mechanisms for causing an orientation toward women and all men have the mechanisms for causing an orientation toward men. If you think the human body is perfect and always goes one way, then let the medical community know, because you’re saying there are no states of the human body that deviate from the norm. The medical community should know that they are out of a job.

I would love to vote republican, but they are set on denying me my basic human rights granted by the constitution, so I have to vote in favor of the constitution until republicans figure it out. People realize that gays are denied basic human rights, so they are able to fund democratic and pro-gay causes that are way out of proportion to the amount of gays in the population. All that money is going to democratic causes until republicans figure out that the human body isn’t perfect, and that variations DO exist and are normal and immutable.

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FatManChew
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 12:58pm
Gays will be gay no matter who’s President and those who don’t want their children will kill them when they please. I would rather lose every election until the day I die instead of selling my soul to the devil for a win on earth.

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agnuid
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 11:02am
Read Penn Gillette’s article As long as socity accepts govt handouts and redistribution of wealth as valid tools for economic and social growth conservative parties will languish.

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Halo9x
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 11:01am
Good! The very last thing the Republican Party needs is to give in on same-sex marriage which is a perversion. The ONLY form of marriage is between a man and a woman, period. If they cave to the perverted group then they will lose much more than they gain.

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