No Republican Candidates Addressing Hispanic Advocacy Conference

[deminks]

http://www.ibtimes.com/election-2016-no-republican-candidates-addressing-hispanic-advocacy-conference-2000306

If the GOP thinks they’re going to win more Hispanic voters in 2016, they appear to have decided that speaking at large gatherings of Latino leaders isn’t the way to go. None of the 2016 candidates will address the annual convention of the National Council of La Raza -- the largest Latino advocacy group -- being held next week in Kansas City, Missouri, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Republicans have long contended that winning Hispanics is key to winning the White House, as Latinos are the fastest growing constituency in the country. And President Barack Obama was able to secure his victory thanks to winning the Hispanic vote by a more than 36 point margin in 2008 and 44 point margin in 2012.

A La Raza spokesman told the WSJ that all of the 2016 hopefuls were invited and that none of the Republicans opted to attend. Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley both accepted the invitation to speak at a lunch event with the conference. And Bernie Sanders, who originally had a conflict, will also be in attendance. It seems unlikely all 17 declared and soon-to-be-declared GOP candidates had conflicts for the four-day conference.

La Raza is a network of community organizations -- almost 300 of them -- with a presence in 41 states, according to their website. This is the second Hispanic-targeted event that has had a noticeable lack of Republicans. Last month, only Ben Carson traveled to Las Vegas to speak to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. O’Malley, Clinton and Sanders spoke at that conference.

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