The Signs of A More Diverse Republican Party Are Here

While the Presidential election results continue to hang in the air, the down ballot results that came from this 2020 election have already shown a historic and promising turn for the Republican party. In key states like Florida and Texas, a path has now been shown for a more diverse future for the Republican Party. One that from the bottom of the ballot to the top has an audience and voter pool that is beyond the old white male stereotype often painted about them. 

This election saw a historic amount of support for the Republican Party from minority groups.

Support amongst the LGBTQ community for example doubled this year.

There was a rise in black men support for the Republican Party as well with 19% of them showing support for President Trump in exit polls.

In fact, President Trump gained support from all demographics except for white men and the elderly — both groups many claim make up most of the GOP.

While Democrats did their best to paint both President Trump and the Republican Party as “racist,” the numbers show that a lot of minority communities disagreed with that stereotypes and mischaracterization. Let’s get into the details and look at some specific examples of these diverse voters and their effect on the 2020 election. 

Florida was thought to be the battleground state of all battleground states leading up to the election much like it had been in 2016. This year, it was one of the earliest states to be called and projected. When looking at what exactly happened in this state to make it a win for President Trump again when many had predicted it would go blue, an influx of Hispanic voters is what is the most pointed to currently. For example, Miami-Dade County was supposed to be an easy and robust win for Joe Biden. This county had been won by Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 30%. In one of the earliest shocks of the night the county was won by Joe Biden by a mere 7%. This was the first sign that things were not going as expected. 

This influx of voters would have a down ballet effect. Two U.S House seats in Florida, for example, were flipped in Republicans’ favor. This didn’t end just in Florida however, Texas saw amazing changes in demographics of voters as well on both the macro and micro scale. 

As someone who is from the Rio Grande Valley, the results that come through in this majority Hispanic area in Texas were shocking and moving. Zapata County for example is a county that President Trump had lost by 33% in 2016. This year it went red. Donald Trump won the second most Hispanic county in the entire country by five percent. This is something that has sent Democrat lawmakers and commentators into shock. What perhaps makes it even more shocking is that it isn’t an outlier. While it is the only county that President Trump and the GOP won out right in the RGV, there was a trend amongst all the counties in that area. The most Hispanic county in the country, Starr County, was only lost by the GOP by five percent when in 2016 it had been lost by a whopping 60%. 

These trends and uptick in votes weren’t just for the President. Monica De La Cruz- Hernandez was a conservative Latina woman running in US Congress District 15 in Texas. Never before had this particular seat been competitive, but this year was different. Monica only lost by three percent. That is historic. 

If there is one thing that can be learned from this 2020 election it is that minority voters are worth more time and investment than they have ever been given before by either party. Minority votes won states, turned areas purple, and flipped House seats. Going into the future, they can’t be ignored again or taken for granted now. Outreach must continue and increase, focused ads must continue and increase, and door knocking and phone banking in these areas must continue and increase. These new voters can be used as the amazing foundation to a new future for the Republican Party. 

For the past few years both the right and the left have said that demographic changes are not on the GOP’s side. They said that the end of the party was looming near due to the growth of Hispanic voters and other minority communities. We know now that that is not true. With the right messaging, effort, and investment, the Republican Party can be the party of diversity.