ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the erosion of Latino support for the Democratic party, especially among Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans. It discusses what the Democrats must do in order to recapture the confidence and elective support of Latino voters. The growing support of Latino voters for Republican presidential contenders during the 1980s caught many Democratic leaders by surprise. The Great Depression, however, was widely viewed as marking the turning point for Latino support for the Democratic party. Many of the internal factors that had seriously undermined the Republican party’s Latino outreach program in 1960 surfaced once again in the 1964 presidential race. Ronald Reagan’s appeal to Latino votes in general and Mexican American votes in particular was primarily based on ideology rather than on campaign pledges of more Latino federal programs and appointments. The historical relationship between Latinos and the Democratic party has been tenuous at best.
