Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have managed to make their way to the top tier of the GOP presidential race, but if liberal Hispanic groups have their way, these two candidates will quickly fall from grace. Going as far as calling the two candidates “traitors” to their own “race,” the group has launched an attack on Cruz and Rubio through an onslaught of social media posts, online ads and public discussions in swing states.
Cruz and Rubio, senators from Texas and Florida, are being accused of fighting against increases to minimum wage, immigration reforms and a host of other changes that Latinos support. Liberal Hispanic groups are even comparing the two candidates to Donald Trump, GOP front runner whose view on immigration is quite controversial.
At a gathering of Democratic Hispanic leaders in Nevada, photos of Rubio and Cruz were displayed alongside Trump’s photo, with the claim that all three are anti-Latino.
Civil rights activist and labor leader Dolores Huerta called the two candidates “traitors” and “sellouts” at the gathering, stating that the presidential hopefuls are turning their backs on Latinos.
Liberals are quite eager to knock out Rubio and Cruz because both are threats to win, which would force the group to abandon the notion that the “white party” would never be in support of a minority nominee. On top of this, Latino Democrats are hard to come by on the national level. The biggest Latino political stars in America are Republican, including Rubio, Cruz, Brian Sandoval and Susana Martinez.
The most prominent Latino Democrats are nothing to write home about. Julian Castro, for example, was snatched from his role as mayor of San Antonio, and named head of HUD to give him some national exposure just in case Hillary needs a Latino on the ticket in 2016. If Cruz or Rubio are named the nominee, she certainly will need Castro. Simply put, the attacks from liberal Hispanic groups are born out of fear.
Just recently, Ted Cruz sat down to discuss his campaign’s position on immigration with Latino Republicans. Chad Sweet, Ted Cruz’s campaign chairman, stated that Cruz is opposed to legalization for immigrants who are already in the U.S. without legal permission. His stance is a surprising one as Cruz has stated time and time again that he will not rule out legalization for some illegal immigrants – once certain security measures have been put in place. But his stance may have veered more to the right since Trump started gaining border-hawk votes. Either way, some clarification from Ted Cruz would be welcomed.
