Earlier this year, McCain called on the Republican Party to adopt a new outreach strategy towards America’s growing Hispanic population, advocating for positive messages instead of the inflammatory rhetoric which has created a negative opinion of the GOP.
Shortly after, Senator Mel Martinez, FL-R, announced that he would be resigning from the U.S. Senate, and although his motivation for doing so was personal, he made it clear that he though the GOP’s stance on immigration was regrettable. On NBC’s Meet the Press, he said:
…There were voices within our party, frankly, which if they continue with that kind of rhetoric, anti-Hispanic rhetoric, that so much of it was heard, we’re going to be relegated to minority status.
And in today’s Washington Post, we see that his message is still the same. Michael Gerson quotes Martinez:
There are lots of Hispanics to the right of you and me on immigration…but they think, ‘Republicans just don’t like us.’…It is more a matter of tone, of how you talk about immigrants. It has made Hispanics feel unwelcome, unwanted.