WSJ Allows Libre's Daniel Garza To Misleadingly Suggest Latinos Are Becoming More Conservative

The Wall Street Journal and The Libre Initiative's Daniel Garza cherry-picked data from recent elections to suggest that Latinos are becoming more conservative, failing to note that almost 63 percent of Latinos voted for Democrats in U.S. House races and that 79 percent of Latino politicians elected to state legislatures were also Democrats.

On the March 17 edition of The Wall Street Journal's “Opinion Journal,” WSJ editorial board member Mary Kissel talked to Koch-funded Libre Initiative executive director Daniel Garza, asking him if Democrats were “at risk of really losing [the Latino] vote” despite Latinos “overwhelmingly” voting Democratic. Pointing to the 2014 midterm election results, Garza says that there is evidence that Latinos have “shifted” to the right. 

Garza is correct to point out that a few races did see GOP gains among Latino voters, but as Democratic strategist Maria Cardona told The New York Times, “Republicans should not read too much into this,” adding, “this doesn't mean their path to the White House in 2016 will be that much easier.” In the same Times piece, Garza again claimed “there is a national trend of Latinos distancing away from the Democrats.”

In fact, according to The Huffington Post, the 2014 midterm elections produced the “most Latino Congress ever” with “Democrats making up almost three out of four” of the 32 incoming Hispanic Congress members. The Huffington Post also added that exit poll numbers prove “that some 63 percent of Latino voters backed Democrats in U.S. House races -- a six-point jump from the last midterm elections in 2010.”

Furthermore, the Pew Research Center found that “Democrats won the Latino vote by a margin of 62% to 36%” across the country in congressional races. This is an upward trend, considering that 60 percent of Latinos voted for Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections.