Via Twitter
Why do people still think former Arizona governor Jan Brewer is relevant? In Friday’s Boston Globe, Brewer once again showed how out of touch she is with the politics of a changing America when she said this in response to the news that Hillary Clinton is ahead in Arizona polls:
“Nah. They don’t get out and vote. They don’t vote.”
If this were 2012 or 2008, Brewer might have been right, but it’s not as clear as she thinks Here is what Pew Research posted just last week about Latino voter turnout in 2016:
Since 2012, the number of Hispanic eligible voters has increased by 4 million, accounting for 37% of the growth in all eligible voters during that span. The Hispanic share of eligible voters in several key battleground states has also gone up.
Latinos have favored the Democratic Party over the Republican Party in every presidential election since at least the 1980s, but their electoral impact has long been limited by low voter turnout and a population concentrated in non-battleground states. Despite large growth in the number of eligible Latino voters, it remains to be seen whether their turnout will set a record in November.
And yeah, there’s this whole Trump effect thing. As The New York Times’ Nate Cohn reports:
But this year, newly registered voters have tended to be more Hispanic than in past years. According to data from Catalist, a Democratic firm, about 12 percent of newly registered voters were estimated to be Hispanic, versus 10 percent by the same point in 2012.
In Florida, the Hispanic share of registered voters has already risen to 15.3 percent on Aug. 1 from 13.9 percent at the time of the 2012 presidential election.
In 2012, the Hispanic share of registered voters increased to 13.9 percent from 13.5 between the August primary and the general election. A similar uptick would be bad news for Republicans; a bigger one would start to make Mr. Trump’s path to victory in Florida look very tenuous.
Brewer is yesterday’s news. Just like Joe Arpaio (who might lose this year). The electorate is changing and she can thank her Republican presidential candidate for that.
