Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Trump Finds Support from New Mexico Hispanics

From tonight's ABQ Journal web page:

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Michaela Chavez is a former Democrat who says she's been a supporter of Donald Trump from Day One.

She likes how his administration is handling the economy and feels he's negotiating better trade deals for the country.

And when it comes to immigration, the Albuquerque resident supports the president's desire to build a wall on the Mexican border.

“I'm all for immigration, as long as it is done the right way,” she said.

Chavez is convinced Trump is building a better future for her family.

She is the type of person Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale hopes to recruit to help the president win New Mexico in 2020. Parscale pledged the campaign would pour more resources into the state at the Latinos for Trump-sponsored “Vamos for Victory” organizing event at Casa Rondeña Winery in the North Valley on Tuesday, one day after Trump's rally at the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho.

“We need volunteers,” Parscale told about the crowd of about 200. “You have to step up. If you can't go door-to-door, sign up for Twitter.”

He urged those in attendance to retweet the president's tweets, or those of the campaign or the Republican Party.

“Choose your weapon … Snapchat or Instagram,” he said. “Volunteer on our website. Get training. … This is about a huge grass-roots movement to save our country.”

He would seem to have eager volunteers in Marcella Trujillo Melendez and Ernie Salazar.

“The most important thing to me is that I believe he truly loves America,” Melendez said. “I believe that he knows his job. His job is to put America first. He's not the president of the world.”

Like Chavez, Melendez believes Trump is doing “a bang-up job” on the economy.

Salazar agrees.

“Hispanic unemployment is at a historical low,” he said. “African American unemployment is at a historic low. He's taking care of people of color. If you look in a box of crayons, you'll see a white crayon, too.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Hispanics matched its record low of 4.2% in August. The unemployment rate for African American workers fell to an all-time low of 5.5%. But the overall African American participation in the job market, 58%, is lower than it was in March 2000, when it was 61.4%.

Like Chavez, Salazar and Melendez agree with the president on immigration policy.

“I believe in the wall,” Melendez said. “I believe in security. This is my country, and I want it to be safe.”

State Rep. Alonzo Baldonado said he sees the energy of the support for Trump from Hispanics.

“I see the energy in Valencia County,” said the Republican from Los Lunas, who was a panelist at the event. He said the county, which traditionally has voted Democratic, supported Trump in 2016. “If we can multiply that with the energy in this room and take it back to our hometowns, President Trump can win in New Mexico,” he said.

But Democrats are skeptical that Trump can win over Hispanic voters.

“The president has demeaned, demonized and discriminated against Hispanics, immigrants and diverse communities every single day he has been president,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said before the president's rally.

The state Democratic Party also sent a news release calling some of the president's remarks about Hispanics at the rally “offensive.”

Thanks Ben,

Some of those in the story remind me of the "Hispanics" I grew up around in SoCal. Their families had come across the border "the right way" years before and weren't very enthusiastic about illegal immigration.

Geno

I’d rather have a family of Mexicans immigrate LEGALLY over a family of Russians. The Mexicans that come here legally are usually all hard working, god fearing, family oriented conservatives....ime. The Russians are always looking for a way to take from the system, they have a predisposition to stealing and lying. I don’t know if it’s a generational thing that they’ve grown up being taught that we’re the enemy and to take whatever they can from us “rich” Americans or if it’s just part of their DNA but I don’t like nor do I trust Russians. All things being equal I could easily be friends and neighbors with a legal Mexican family but it’d have to be an anomaly of a Russian family that I’d befriend and I’d always be on code orange around them and their extended network of other Russians. Gastronomically speaking there’s no contest, the Mexicans win hands down. 😁

MAGA

On the Russians - they are warped from 75 years under Communist Rule, and from Centuries of a near Feudal System before that. Under the USSR, you couldn't trust anyone outside your family, and even then that was often dicey. That is not going away anytime soon. Corruption in new Russia keeps that concept alive and well.

As to the Mexicans.... On and off I've tried to make the point that Latinos by and large are more conservative than the Democrat Party supports. They are church goers, often strong Catholics, strong family units. They aren't into late term abortion or LGBT rights and hoopla. The Mexicans and Latinos that have come here (Georgia) by the zillions in the past 20 years are working, they start their own businesses, they are not on the dole. They walk their young kids to school, play soccer with them, they cook out on weekends. They make sure their kids know English and want them to go to college. They live the American dream. They are enjoying the opportunity for upward social and economic mobility.

With all of that, they could be recruited in big numbers to be Conservative, because they ARE conservative. Its just that nobody has explained it to them. What would the voting demographics be if the GOP got just a solid 50% of the Latino vote? How about the GOP cultivates the African American vote that is college educated and/or sick of the race baiters and the poverty pimps and like the fact that Trump is getting people work? What happens to the vote if the GOP goes from 6% AA vote to 25%? That means 75% are still Democrats, BUT they will have lost nearly 20% of that base. Doom on the Democrats when that happens.

Asians can be a majority GOP voting block if cultivated. Chinese, Koreans, India-Indians are all for family, education, self-reliance. They are business people and entrepreneurs. They want low taxes and they are all into favorable trade. Sounds like another huge pool to strengthen the GOP with conservative votes.

Alas, there are those who think all Latinos will always vote 100% Democrat, and that they are all for Open Borders, and that they will all always be on the dole. Same with A-A's, that they all live in the ghetto and rob and steal.

As usual, Hatari, you're spot on. Good post.

We also make the mistake of thinking all Hispanics, or even Mexicans, are alike, it ain’t so. An old time Spanish resident of Northern New Mexica is entirely different from a fifth generation American Tex-Mexican, and both again bear no relation to a Mexican flag-waving Latino from East Los Angeles

Hatari, As usual I agree with you and you hit at the heart of what I was trying to say. 👍. My MIL is Vietnamese, my FIL is Caucasian and the two of them met in (around Saigon) in the late 1960’s. She is the most conservative woman I’ve ever known. She hates democrats with a fervor that “almost” makes me blush and thinks, like I do, that President Trump is the best President of our lifetime. I was really surprised to see how many other Asians, Vietnamese and Koreans especially, are strong conservatives. If a civil war broke out tomorrow my MIL would support the conservative patriots either through direct fire or through a support role. At almost 80 years old she could kick most democrats asses and would be happy to use her firearms to support the only country that she loves but her real contributions would be her cooking. 😁