Latinos can help the Republican Party grow in Tennessee | Opinion – Yahoo News

Not long ago, Democrats were giddy with demographic trendlines projecting a massive growth in the Hispanic population nationwide.

The thinking: as the country becomes minority-majority, Democrats will firmly control all branches of government and Republicans will become extinct.

But a funny thing is happening to Democrats on the way to cash their political paycheck. More and more Hispanics are voting Republican.

And as the Latino community continues to grow in Tennessee, both political parties should take note of these trends and work hard to win over this growing voting bloc.

For Republicans, this means stepping out of their comfort zone and going into places with large Hispanic populations. In Middle Tennessee, there is a sizable and vibrant Latino community in Nashville and the surrounding areas.

Large Hispanic churches are not only providing Latinos a place to worship, but also a place to organize and make their voice heard in the civic process.

I recently had a chance to see this firsthand when I attended a service at Casa de Dios, a church in Middle Tennessee, where Gov. Bill Lee was their guest speaker. At the service, Lee talked about the work he is doing for all Tennesseans, and Latinos attending the service talked directly to the governor.

This is exactly the type of civic engagement that we need from Latinos and from elected officials in the state.

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Besides having a seat at the table of policymaking, Tennessee Republicans also must do a better job identifying, training and recruiting conservative Latinos to run for office. Latinos are opening up businesses, running nonprofits and serving in churches and local communities from Knoxville to Memphis and everywhere in between.

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A Latina voter at a voter registration event held by the North Carolina Congress of Latino Organizations.

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These are folks that Republicans should be talking to and sharing their vision for the state and country with.

Recent polling and electoral results confirm that Latinos are a not a monolithic voting bloc, but instead open to hearing a pitch from both political parties. Ruy Teixeria, a Democratic analyst specializing in the Hispanic vote, recently sounded the alarm for Democrats, writing: They [Latinos] are instead a patriotic, upwardly mobile, working-class group with quite practical and down-to-earth concerns. Democrats will either learn to focus on that or they will continue to lose ground among this vital group of voters.

Sign up for our newsletter.: Read compelling stories for and with the Latino community in Tennessee.

Teixeria is right. In fact, a recent Wall Street Journal poll found that Hispanic voters are now evenly split between the two parties. The article went on to note that Republicans have made rapid gains among a crucial voting demographic that has long favored Democrats.

For Republicans, these trendlines are encouraging, but they dont necessarily mean that its automatic. They will still need to campaign in Latino communities and invest in sustained and long-term Hispanic engagement to secure their votes.

Nationally, Democrats need to understand that there is a large swath of voters who are not interested in defunding the police and value the sanctity of life. Instead of casting off these voters because they are clinging to guns and religion, Democrats should welcome them into their party.

A lot can happen between now and November, but both political parties have been put on notice. Republicans need to double down on reaching out to Latino voters, and Democrats should reject the radical progressive wing of the party so that they dont turn off moderates, independents and, yes, Latinos.

Raul Lopez is the executive director of Latinos for Tennessee, an organization committed to promoting and defending faith, freedom and family to the Latino community in Tennessee.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Latinos can help the Republican Party grow in Tennessee

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Latinos can help the Republican Party grow in Tennessee | Opinion - Yahoo News