It was thought the Hispanic vote could be the deciding factor in this year’s election and most of those votes were projected to go towards Hillary Clinton.
Tuesday in a New York Times exit poll, we learned Hillary Clinton received 65% of the Hispanic vote, that’s less than what President Obama garnered in 2012.
With 29% percent, it’s being reported that Donald Trump, the man who kicked-off his campaign calling Mexicans rapists and drug dealers, received more Hispanic support than Mitt Romney, whose controversial immigration platform was ‘self-deportation.”
“Undocumented, unafraid,” shouted demonstrators.
The immigration protests continued outside of the White House on Election night. Many stood afraid of what would happen to their family and friends next. Some said it’s been that way since Donald Trump’s 2015 Presidential Election bid.
“He said Mexican but he meant my whole community. He meant my Latino friends from Central American, he meant my Latina friends from South American and he meant the Puerto Ricans,” said Natalia Gonzalez outside of the White House. She is from Puerto Rico and could not vote this year.
Even with these sentiments, Helen Aguirre Ferre says what the election proved is you can’t just pair Hispanics with immigration.
“We’re not homogenous. We have different opinions just like every other American might have different opinions,” said Aguirre Ferre.
She’s the RNC’s Director of Hispanic Communication and explained how they worked differently with the various Hispanic groups across the country. For example, in Florida, she says many Cuban-Americans feel betrayed by President Obama opening relations with communist Cuba.
“Then you go into the I-4 corridor and there’s a large group Puerto Ricans. You have Columbians and Venezuelans but for the Puerto Ricans in particular, many have left Puerto Rico because there are no economic opportunities,” the Spokeswoman said.
Different views on jobs, Union members for or upset with Trump all played factors. There’s still more than a reported more than 11 million undocumented people in the United States, immigration is an important issue.
Aguirre Ferre told WUSA9 she was not pleased with Trump’s opening words on Mexicans but agrees with Trump’s outline policy.
“Yeah he speaks in a busk sort of tone sometimes but at the same time, he’s addressing the issue everybody chooses to ignore,” she said. “Donald Trump has made it very clear that he is going to work with the leadership of the White House and Congress to make sure that we have meaningful immigration reform.”
It’s something Aguirre Ferre also says should have been done during the Obama administration.
In other parts of D.C. Wednesday, others remained in shock.
“I hear that it wasn’t the turnout that was expected, which is completely disappointing for every Latin and Hispanic heritage person in our country, in the U.S. He’s dangerous. He’s made clear what he stands for, what he stands to do,” said James Sands who told WUSA9 he is of Hispanic descent.
Aguirre Ferre says if anything, the Hispanic voter will be more respected come the next election because of the diversity shown this time around.
As of July 1, 2014, the Hispanic population is estimated to be around 55 million people in the United States, which makes people of Hispanic origin the nation’s largest ethnic or racial minority. Hispanics constituted 17 percent of the nation’s total population, according to the Census Bureau.
