Julian Castro worries ‘narrative’ that Latino vote is turning GOP will become 'self-fulfilling prophecy'
Hispanic and Latino voters have begun shifting more towards Republicans ahead of the midterm elections
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
MSNBC political analyst Julián Castro feared the "narrative" that Latinos are voting for Republicans could lead to a "bandwagon effect" ahead of the midterm elections.
MSNBC’s Joy Reid hosted the former presidential candidate on "The ReidOut" Tuesday where they discussed the potential shift in the Hispanic vote which had previously been reliably Democratic. Reid, however, denied that a shift was taking place as a majority of Latinos still prefer Democratic candidates.
"The narrative doesn’t match the data. Why do you suppose that narrative is taking hold?" Reid asked.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Castro agreed, blasting the media’s "narrative" that Hispanics are moving more towards Republicans.
"I have been pulling my hair out for the last couple months as I have seen story after story after story that you mention acting as though the Latino vote is somehow currently a Republican vote now, which couldn’t be further from the truth because when you poll it, Latinos are still firmly Democratic. Yes, there was movement in 2020, but they still are firmly Democratic," Castro said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
He added, "My worry, Joy, is that this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, basically. People that are not super political, you know, that’s not all they do is follow politics, they start to think, 'Hey, okay, oh, folks are going Republican now.' There is a bandwagon effect that I fear can happen based on essentially inaccurate narrative that is out there over and over and over again."
Castro, however, did admit that there was a "hemorrhaging" of support for Democrats in some areas of Texas that will require grassroots efforts to counter.
"What that takes on the other side is very hard organizing, door knocking, phone calling, going and doing what Beto O’Rourke and his campaign and other campaigns are doing, especially in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas where we saw some hemorrhaging of support for Democrats, and making sure that folks understand what the stakes are and the Hispanic community gets that touch that you need to keep them in the Democratic column," Castro said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Reid also singled out "the in-language disinformation" on Spanish radio and asked how Democratic campaigns are planning to handle it.
"We spent a lot of time during the Trump era and afterwards focused on social media and especially English language and those platforms have addressed it better in English than they have in Spanish. Really, these folks who are engaging in disinformation have been allowed to continue to run roughshod over the truth in Spanish language. That has had an effect in some races in south Florida, in south Texas, and hopefully, you know, we have gotten better at combating it in 2022, but it takes spending and organizing and hopefully it won’t make much of a difference this year, but we’ll see in a couple weeks," Castro said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Many mainstream media outlets have voiced concerns over Hispanics potentially being "stolen" by the GOP.