Republicans hope to recruit 100 Hispanic candidates for legislative seats across the nation in 2012, looking to deepen its bench of GOP officeholders. And Colorado’s Republican Party is expecting to be part of the effort to recruit and support likely candidates.“The voices and perspectives of the Hispanic community are of great importance to our party,” says state Republican Party Chairman Ryan Call. “Not only do the issues of economic growth and job creation and improving the quality of education really resonate with the Hispanic community, they’re values and issues that are really shared by Republicans.”
Call says the state GOP party will allocate significant financial resources to find potential candidates from a number of different Colorado communities. In 2010 Republicans helped elect several high-profile Hispanic candidates, including Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Governor Susana Martinez of New Mexico.
Over the last ten years, Hispanics have accounted for more than half the nation’s population increase. According to the most recent census, 20.7% of Colorado’s population is of Latino or Hispanic origin.
