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It Will Take More Than Immigration Issues to Sway the Latino Vote

Image via Flickr/Vox Efx (CC BY 2.0)
Latinos in the U.S. are looking for a presidential candidate that addresses immigration reform and the economy.

President Obama gave a speech Thursday night at a dinner for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.

"America's greatness does not come from building walls, it comes from building opportunity," he told the room.

The comments were directly pointed at several republican presidential candidates on the issue, one that will be at the core of the 2016 election. But does the GOP's hardline on immigration issues automatically mean Democrats have an easy lock on the Latino voting block?

Victoria De Francesco Soto, a fellow at the LBJ Center for Politics and Governance at the University of Texas at Austin, says immigration is a key point, but not the only important issue.

"Latinos care about education, they care about the economy, they care about the schools that their children go to," Soto says. "So it’s part of a bigger package.”

What you'll hear in this segment:

  • The Latino vote's impact on the Republican Party
  • A look at other factors, aside from immigration, that drive the Latino vote
  • Ideas on how 2016 presidential candidates gain support from Latino voters
Rhonda joined KUT in late 2013 as producer for the station's new daily news program, Texas Standard. Rhonda will forever be known as the answer to the trivia question, “Who was the first full-time hire for The Texas Standard?” She’s an Iowa native who got her start in public radio at WFSU in Tallahassee, while getting her Master's Degree in Library Science at Florida State University. Prior to joining KUT and The Texas Standard, Rhonda was a producer for Wisconsin Public Radio.
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