Republicans make inroads with Latino voters in midterm elections

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Republicans make inroads with Latino voters

Many Republicans won key elections, in part, because they won about 40% of the Hispanic vote in their states.

A look at the exit poll data from Tuesday's elections shows many Republicans won key senatorial and gubernatorial races, in part, thanks to relatively strong support from Hispanic voters.

Hispanics voted nearly two to one for Democratic candidates across the country in this midterm election. For Republicans, 40 percent is the magic threshold for winning in states with strong Latino voter presence. That is the share of Latino votes, the theory goes, that a Republican presidential candidate should get to significantly bolster the chance of a victory.

According to Fox News exit poll data on Hispanic voters, in states where the data is available, Republican U.S. senate candidates who captured nearly 40 percent of the Hispanic vote won their races.

In Texas, Republican John Cornyn won the state's Hispanic vote on his way to senate re-election. Cornyn won 48 percent of the Hispanic vote while his Democratic challenger, David Alameel, won 47 percent of the vote.

In Georgia, Republican David Purdue won 42 percent of the Hispanic vote in Georgia, a state that's becoming more and more blue as state demographics shift. Purdue beat Democratic challenger Michelle Nunn, who won 57 percent of the Hispanic vote.

In Kansas, Republican Pat Roberts won and nearly garnered more Hispanic support than his Independent challenger Greg Orman. Roberts received 46 percent of the Hispanic vote while Orman won 49 percent of the vote.

"We need to get out there and promote self-reliance, self-sufficiency, and individual responsibility," Angela McGlowan, a Republican political analyst, told Fox News. "We are not second class citizens just because we are Black, Brown and Red."

According to Fox News exit poll data on Hispanic voters, in states where the data is available, Republicans who won near 40 percent of the Hispanic vote won three out of five Governor races.

Many say that while Republicans made inroads with the Hispanic community, there is still room for improvement.

"They did a good job, but we could have done a better job. A lot of minorities believe that my party will only go to them when it's time to get out the vote,” McGlowan said. “Bush got 45 percent of the Latino vote because he went to that community and did coalition building, grassroots building."

Republican Governor Rick Scott won his re-election bid in Florida with 38 percent of the Latino vote. In Texas, Republican Governor Greg Abbott won and got 44 percent of the Hispanic vote and Georgia's Republican Governor Nathan Deal won re-election with 47 percent of the Latino vote.

Both Neel Kashkari in California and Rob Astorino in New York lost their bids for Governor and were only able to muster 27 percent of the Hispanic vote. But both of those states are strongly Democratic.

Julie Roginsky, a Fox News contributor and former political advisor for Democratic Senator Mark Lautenberg, said Democrats were hurt because many Latinos were feeling disenchanted and decided to sit out the election because President Barack Obama decided to defer executive action on immigration.

"Latinos were desenergized, disenchanted," Roginsky said. "and a lot of them stayed home."