It's Official, RPT Engagement Program Working!

The following came in from the Republican Party of Texas:

A report from the Gallup organization published on February 7th, 2014 has confirmed what previous Texas GOP polling has shown, that the Texas GOP is making significant gains in the Hispanic community. According to the Gallup tracking poll, which consisted of 16,028 respondents nationwide and 2,536 respondents in Texas, support for the Texas GOP has risen from 23%-27% since 2009 among Hispanics. Meanwhile, support of the Democrat party has dropped from 53% to 46% in Texas. The remainder of the vote is independent. This increased number of Texans of Hispanic descent that identify themselves as solidly Republican, along with the swing Hispanic voters that the party has been able to attract, has allowed Texas Republican candidates to garner approximately 4 out of 10 Hispanic voters the last few election cycles.

The Gallup report also indicated that the Texas GOP is outperforming the national party with regards to attracting Hispanic voters, while the Texas Democrat party is underperforming their national average. Nationally, 21% of Hispanic voters identify themselves as solidly Republican compared to 27% in Texas. On the Democrat side, 51% of Hispanic voters in the other 49 state identify themselves as Democrat while only 46% do in Texas.

The Gallup organization concluded "Hispanics in Texas are more likely to identify as Republicans than Hispanics elsewhere and the Republican Party of Texas has seen more growth of Hispanic support over the past five years than the Democrat party...the GOP may be more competitive with this block than many assume..."

This report, which may startle many pundits and contradicts much of what has been assumed in the media and espoused by Democrat party leaders, has caused headlines across country. Here are just a few of the headlines:

Texas Hispanics Lean More Republican Than Latinos As A Whole: Poll - Huffington Post

Hispanics Less Likely to Vote Democrat in Texas Than Elsewhere - UPI

A Purple Texas? Not So Fast - Washington Post

UPI noted, "The findings complicate suggestions that Texas will soon become a blue state." The monitor noted "...its large Hispanic populations, although solidly Democrat, is less so than Hispanic nationally" Perhaps the best summation was from the Washington Post who stated that "Latinos in Texas are also trending more toward the GOP and away from Democrats in contrast to the rest of the country."

In response to this very encouraging data, RPT Chairman Steve Munisteri stated, "Over the last couple of years, our polling has showed that our outreach efforts are yielding significant results in attracting new Republican voters from the Hispanic, Asian American, and African American communities. The Gallup organization's findings, coming from a non-partisan group, confirms that our aggressive engagement program has been working. I would like to thank Republican National Committee Chairman, Reince Priebus, for helping to provide resources for this project and for his vision. I also would like to congratulate our engagement staff: Hispanic Outreach Director, David Zapata, Asian American Outreach Director, Melissa Fwu, and African American Outreach Director, Tommy Coleman for their hard work in accomplishing this goal as well as the rest of our engagement team working out of offices across the state, including: Mitch Carney, Andrea Chavez, Rosalba Martinez, Roseanne Rodriguez, Brian Flores, Ann-Marie Craig, Carlos Guerra, Brandon Barrera, Crystal Rodriguez, Luz Cruz, and Josh Peltier."