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Leslie Sanchez tells Boca Republicans that Hispanics are America's new "swing vote"
Published Thursday, November 1, 2007
by John Johnston

Leslie Sanchez smiled broadly and was extraordinarily charming.

But she also left do doubt for Boca Raton Republicans last week that if the GOP is seen to be unwelcoming and intolerant on immigration issues, it could wreck the party for Latinos for generations to come.

Sanchez – named one of America’s top 100 most influential Hispanics -- and who lectures frequently on issues of importance to women and the Hispanic community, spoke to the Boca Raton Republican Club recently; her remarks focused on her new book: "Los Republicanos: Why Hispanics and Republicans Need Each Other”

In that book she pulls no punches, saying it’s “no surprise that suspicions and prejudices develop when Republicans treat Hispanics not as brothers, but as illegitimate children of America.”

However, she also told Republican Club members that Hispanics are not pre-occupied with the question of immigration – that, in general, Hispanics are in fact “much more like Republicans” than has been portrayed by the mainstream media.

“Immigration, believe it or not, is not the number one issue for Hispanics,” she said.   And when asked, Hispanics say that “terrorism, the economy, health care, education are all higher priorities than immigration.”

At the same time, she acknowledged that 40-45 percent of Hispanic voters “are die-hard Kennedy Democrats,” but also noted that 30-35 percent of Hispanics “voted GOP in the last seven elections.”

Which leaves 25 to 35 percent as “independent and open minded – not liking labels,” she said.

What the GOP needs to do, Sanchez said, is move the 30 percent who vote GOP to “40 percent, and then the Democratic coalition starts to fall apart.”

She said Hispanics are more “naturally aligned with Republicans” in many ways.

“We marry more and divorce less,” she said, adding that a full 56 percent of Hispanics say that “to lower taxes on families and business is best for the economy.”
Wall Street Studies

Sanchez was also candid about how Hispanics are “wired differently” and how Wall Street and marketing managers “get it, and now political campaigns need to follow.”

As examples of how Hispanics are different, Sanchez said that corporate America spent a full year studying Hispanics and came away with five basic understandings.  The studies revealed that Hispanics:

• Consider time commitments more of a goal, rather than a commitment.

• Change plans often and easily.

• Care about close friends and relatives more than privacy.

• Are more involved with each other and interact frequently.

• Casually touch each other with ease.

And with self-deprecating humor, she noted that the British average two touches per hour, the French, 23 touches per hour; Italians, 79 touches per hour – and Latinos, 125 touches per hour.

“We’re a very passionate, emotional culture,” she laughed.

Which led her to the point of making the comparison.

“We call her the cold one,” Sanchez said of presumed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. “She’s the iceberg.”
Many Outlets

A featured speaker at the Harvard University ARCO Forum of Public Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Sanchez has been a guest columnist for United Press International and appears regularly throughout the English- and-Spanish-language media. She appears regularly on all three major broadcast networks as well as Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, Telemundo and Univision. Her analyses are frequently cited in a variety of publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post and US News and World Report.

However, her public involvement on behalf of women in general, and the Hispanic community specifically, has not been limited to the media.

As executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, Sanchez was President George W. Bush's point person on Hispanic education issues – launching the unprecedented Yes I Can! / Yo Si Puedo public education campaign, the first bilingual interactive effort serving as a one-stop education shop for families.  With over 600 pages of pre-K-through-12 educational toolkits and the creation of a mascot, Pablo the Eagle, Yes I Can! was credited with an historic 400-plus percent increase in Hispanic customers to the US Department of Education.
Swing Vote

“Politics is about people,” Sanchez told Republican Club members – and Hispanics “are the next big swing vote,” she said.

Looking around at the audience, Sanchez noted the large number of women attendees, and noted that Clinton has said she expects to win “24 percent of GOP women.”

“Must be something in the water,” Clinton’s drinking, Sanchez smiled.

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