Chris Wallace asks Eva Longoria why Hispanics feel they have ‘a place in the Republican Party’

The disenfranchisement of once assured voting blocs in favor of exceedingly fringe positions left actress Eva Longoria stretching to explain why Hispanics believe “maybe I’ve got a place in the Republican Party.”

(Video: CNN)

Appearing on “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace,” the unapologetically Democratic celebrity found herself in the unenviable position of having to acknowledge facts that did not sync with her worldview.

From the outset, she pushed back on the typical identity politics while maintaining her own preconceptions of what the monolith “Hispanic vote” was and noted, “What I try to encourage politicians to do is not knock on our door every four years with a taco truck and try to get our vote. Don’t say our vote matters when our lives don’t matter. You have to engage in these communities every day, not every four years.”

The host picked up on that with specific data he called “quite striking” and compared the 2018 midterms to the 2022 midterms where Hispanic support of Democrats dropped from 69 to 60 percent and Republicans climbed from 29 to 39 percent.

“Why do you think we are seeing this swing, it’s still predominantly Democrat, but seeing this swing among Hispanic voters towards the GOP?” he asked.

“That is an interesting data to look at because if you see anything that came out of the 2022 midterms …it was not a choice for the right,” Longoria argued, presenting her opinion as fact. “I mean, we held on to Congress, we held on to the Senate. I mean, yeah, we had losses. But like, if you saw who was presented to you on the right, people chose not to vote for that. And even Fox News did a beautiful report on the fact that the results were disappointing, right, for the right.”

“But what I think what that says is, you know, our vote is up for grabs,” she continued, perhaps seeking renewed attention from leftist politicians. “And it depends on the candidates. And it depends on your state — it depends on your county, you know, what happens from state to state and county to county, whether it’s women’s rights, voting rights, voter suppression.”

Wallace held to that point as he pressed, “But you say the vote is up for grabs, Eva. What is it that the Democrats are missing that some Hispanics are now saying, you know, maybe I’ve got a place in the Republican Party?”

It was then that the actress found herself criticizing her own party’s platform which made promises to codify Roe v. Wade a central focus of the 2022 election instead of confronting 40-year high inflation.

“I think the number one issue for all Americans, including Latinos, which Latinos are Americans, is the economy. That’s the number one issue. People think our number one issue is immigration or abortion, and it’s jobs and economy,” she continued.

“And I think, you know, there’s a party that speaks better to that. I’m not saying they have a better track record,” she hedged. “I’m just saying they have…a better marketing plan, I think. Because I think, you know, the Democrats have done…they’ve done some progressive things…when it comes to creating jobs. And if you look at small businesses, which is the creation of most jobs in the United States, Latinos create jobs for small businesses four times the national average. Latinas specifically, six times the national average.”

“So, who’s creating the jobs? Our community. We’re creating a lot of jobs and a lot for this country,” Longoria added. “And so, I think they’re looking for somebody who has the business solution, the economic solution to their pocketbook, to their, you know, their monthly bills — who’s going to help me?”

A point missing from the actress’s argument was how the Republican National Committee (RNC) had taken following her earlier advice about the taco trucks and actually prioritized community outreach and engagement at the local level well before the election. This included hiring locals to serve the areas they live in with programs that helped train them on opening their own businesses or how to invest.

As RNC national press secretary Emma Vaughn had said in February 2022, “And I think nationally that the reason why a lot of Hispanics are leaving are just Democrat policies are failing them across the country. The economy is poor, and the supply chain crisis, the border.”

“Crisis after crisis, Hispanics are being brought down and left behind. And under President Trump, they saw record-low unemployment, they saw record-high homeownership. So,” Vaughn continued, “I think it’s just the stark contrast between those policies is also driving nationally Hispanics moving to the Republican Party.”

Meanwhile, Longoria pinpointed a “confidence gap” as she bemoaned “a lot of the talking points for both sides are very deceiving,” without truly admitting fault.

Kevin Haggerty

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