After RNC Calls For Hispanic Outreach, Republican Governor Eliminates Latino Affairs Office

The Republican National Committee devoted much of the attention of its “autopsy” report to improving party outreach to people of color. The report noted it is “imperative that the RNC changes how it engages with Hispanic communities to welcome in new members of our Party.” Yet, if the autopsy report had any effect at all, it appears to be short-lived. Since last week, top Republicans have dodged discussing immigration reform with citizenship, while one congressman used a racial slur to describe Latinos.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory’s (R) contribution to this effort is to unexpectedly close the state’s Latino Affairs office, an office that normally engaged with Latino leaders on policy, offfered bilingual assistance for disaster victims, and collected demographic statistics on the state’s 800,000 Latino residents.

The governor’s office said it will shift some of the office’s duties to a general office for community and constituent affairs. “We are committed to serving the needs of all of North Carolina’s citizens,” McCrory’s chief of staff said. “We don’t segment our constituents by race or cultural background, any more than we separate them by age or gender.”

But Latino advocates criticize the decision. Executive Director of Latin American Coalition in Charlotte Jess George told McClatchy, “The message from Raleigh is that Latinos in North Carolina don’t matter.”

Just before closing the Latino Affairs office, North Carolina pursued a controversial driver’s license design that would distinguish young undocumented immigrants’s licenses by a pink stripe and the words, “NO LAWFUL STATUS” printed across. The state somewhat modified the design when it faced community backlash.

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RNC chairman, in outreach effort, to powwow with black leaders in Atlanta

Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus will meet with black community leaders in Atlanta, Ga. on Thursday to discuss how the GOP can more effectively appeal to minority voters, RNC spokesman Ryan Mahoney confirmed to The Hill on Wednesday.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution, which first reported the meeting, described it as a “quiet, private therapy session” to which the press and top state legislators would not be invited. However, Mahoney said there was no effort to avoid publicizing the event. While the meeting itself will be closed-door, the RNC will hold a press availability afterwards.

“It’s part of a growth and opportunity project in which Priebus is going across the country listening to input from different groups on how we can build and grow the GOP to win future elections,” Mahoney said. “It’s a diverse group of African Americans from across the state. We’ve got youth leaders, community leaders, small business owners - we tried to gather a group together that would provide some good input.”

President Obama won 93 percent of the black vote, 71 percent of the Hispanic vote and 73 percent of the Asian vote in the 2012 election, provoking many Republicans to re-examine their message and policies as they relate to minorities.

Mahoney said Thursday’s event is one of many nationwide meetings Priebus will conduct in the coming months.

At the RNC winter meeting in Charlotte, N.C., last month, Priebus made minority outreach the focus of his speech.

“I’m no math whiz; I’m an attorney. But I don’t need a calculator to know we need to win more votes,” he said. “We have to find more supporters. We have to go places we haven’t been, and we have to invite new people to join us … On the local and state level, we have many success stories in states like Texas and Florida — where Republicans are winning in minority communities. Let’s learn from them, highlight them, celebrate them, and apply those lessons nationwide.”

Priebus also argued that the GOP needs to highlight to the public that Hispanics and blacks have been disproportionately hurt “in the Obama economy.”

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