Can Republicans win the next presidential election without getting more Hispanic votes? It's a question that has obsessed the party since 2012. It's also the wrong question.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney won only 27 percent of Hispanics' votes when he lost in 2012, to President Barack Obama's 71 percent. Romney's defeat convinced a lot of Republicans that they had to court Hispanics by passing legislation offering citizenship, or at least legal status, to most illegal immigrants. So said a lot of big Republican donors, who tended to favor that kind of immigration reform to begin with. The "autopsy" prepared for the Republican National Committee echoed this conclusion. Even Donald Trump said Romney had lost by alienating Hispanics.
Opponents of the so-called reform pointed out numerous defects in the strategy. Republicans who favored some form of legal status, such as 2008 presidential nominee John McCain, had also done poorly among Hispanics. The critics warned that support for such policies might drive turnout lower among white working class voters who otherwise favored Republicans.