In an effort to reach alienated voters, Hispanic immigrants spoke at the Wake County Hispanic Republicans meeting Tuesday, July 17. Much of the meeting focused on combating perceptions of hostility toward immigrants, which surround the Republican Party this election season.
Wake County Hispanic Republicans is less than a year old, with 14 paid members and a budget less than $1,000. The event drew about 20 people.
A first-generation American, interim WCHR Vice President Juan Pleitez was the first member of his family to go to college or high school. His mother had a third-grade education, and his father left school when he was 14 to provide for his family.
Pleitez was the first Republican in his family.
“At home, I’ve always been taught that nothing is going to be handed to you in life. You reap what you sow,” Pleitez said. “My belief in retaining what you’ve worked so hard for, in family values, is what I believe the Republican Party stands for. … This room should be filled with Hispanic Republicans.”
If the room was a little emptier than in his vision, Pleitez said the stigma of racism haunts the Republican Party and its immigration policies.
“People are scared of joining a party that is against them, and I think that’s why I’m such an oddity,” Pleitez said.
Racial animus was a persistent shadow that dogged the meeting. Concerns about Russell Walker, the Republican nominee in state House District 48, who wrote on his website that “God is a racist” and Jewish people are Satanic, repeatedly surfaced during discussion.
In early July, the state Republican Party barred Walker from appearing at any party functions.
“The North Carolina Republican Party condemns your actions and statements and wishes you to drop out of the House District 48 Race immediately,” said a notice from N.C. GOP Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse.
Members of the audience criticized the Republican Party’s response to Walker’s campaign as a “hypocrisy scene,” while panelists lamented his impact on the party’s image.
“We should speak up and be defending our communities, and as Republicans, some of us are lacking in that. We should fuel that fire, not cut it back,” said Jeannette Quin, WCHR’s public relations officer.
Quin said President Trump’s rhetoric inflames the issue.
“I love President Trump. I helped his campaign, but my mom told me there is a way to do what you have to do and be respectful. … He crossed a line. That’s a dealbreaker for most people,” Quin said.
Multiple panelists have received bewildered or hostile reactions from fellow Hispanics when they declared their political affiliations. WCHR President Eléna Southern said being a Republican has cost her more than a few friends.
“I find them to be very cutthroat when they want to diminish my values in comparison,” Southern said. “I will get into that issue, I don’t shy away from being Republican and Hispanic.”
Much of the meeting focused on how Republicans might better reach the Hispanic community by introducing more Spanish in political campaign messages or by actively challenging anti-immigrant rhetoric.
“The Republican Party wants to understand us, but they aren’t going to understand us if we aren’t a part of them,” Pleitez said. “The party needs to understand why Hispanics feel so alienated, and that’s not going to happen outside — it will happen inside.”
The club hopes to eventually elect a Hispanic Republican candidate to the General Assembly.
“We’re growing, we’re still a minority,” Southern said. “My personal plan is to grow this club in numbers and eventually have someone from this club run for office — not necessarily to represent us, because I see ourselves as Americans — but we have not had a representative who is Hispanic win anything yet.”