Beyond Likely Voters: An Event Analysis of Conservative Political Outreach

DESPITE THE VILIFICATION OF RACIAL and ethnic minorities in the 2016 presidential election, a set of unprecedented outreach efforts operated between the 2012 and 2016 elections to cultivate, and even expand, the Republican Party’s appeal. For example, on 29 September 2013, the Libre Initiative, a politically conservative organization, conducted outreach to Latinos in Manassas, Virginia. In an online public announcement, Libre advertised the event using the following message: “Join LIBRE at the Festival Latinoamericano in Manassas, VA! Come learn about our mission to continue empowering the U.S. Hispanic/Latino Community to follow the principles of Economic Freedom that lead to individual prosperity!” Given the Democratic Party’s well-documented advantage among Latinos in terms of party identification and vote choice, this instance of deliberate conservative outreach to Latinos in Virginia seems puzzling.1 However, Latinos’ projected population growth has incentivized Republican strategists to publicly recommend outreach to Latinos if the party hopes to build electoral majorities.