September 2012 | Click here to download PDF With polling that shows Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in a virtual tie, Florida may be the most hotly contested state in the presidential election. To understand what will happen there this November, it’s necessary to get to know Florida’s large, growing, and diversifying bloc of Latino [...]

In the Presidential race, Nevada is considered a battleground state. Nevada also has a competitive Senate race, which pits incumbent Senator Dean Heller (R), who was appointed to fill the vacancy left by Senator John Ensign’s retirement, against U.S. Representative Shelley Berkeley (D). Also, two of the four House races are viewed as competitive. As in 2010, Latino voters will play a determinative role this cycle in Nevada.

Conventional wisdom holds that voters, especially Republican voters, are relentlessly hardline when it comes to immigration policy and reform. Polls that present false choices over immigration—asking whether the government should focus on enforcing immigration laws OR legalizing undocumented immigrants who meet certain criteria—only serve to confirm that flawed analysis.

Florida’s Latino community has long been a powerful force in state politics, constituting 13% of registered voters. Every four years they are a force in national elections as well, and the Latino vote is a huge factor in Florida’s “swing state” status.

As Republicans continue to embrace hard-right positions on immigration, the Party is distancing itself not only from the legacy of Ronald Reagan and other past Republican leaders, but also from Latino voters in numerous states that are shaping up to be key 2012 battlegrounds.

For years, anti-immigrant activists have scared Republican officials into thinking that GOP voters are rabidly anti-immigrant and oppose any candidate who supports common sense reform. The recent ascent of Newt Gingrich, who has weathered attacks from enforcement-only candidate Mitt Romney over his immigration position, demonstrates conclusively that this line of thinking is wrong.

This new report from America's Voice examines—and demolishes—Smith's claim that Republicans can maintain a hard-line on immigration reform and still court the Latino vote by running Latino candidates. The report highlights several key findings with major implications for Republican strategists and the 2012 cycle.

This backgrounder on constitutional citizenship reveals that recent attempts to deny citizenship to babies is unconstitutional and wrong, leading to millions of dollars lost in litigation, and viewed by the fastest growing voting demographic -- Latinos -- as an attack on their community. Moreover, revoking the 14th amendment is not a solution for fixing our broken immigration system.

Leaders of the Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement, Reps. Lamar Smith, Elton Gallegly, and Steve King, are professing profound concern for people of color and American workers. But their voting records tell an entirely different story, and America’s Voice Education Fund (AVEF) is exposing the rank hypocrisy behind their strategy.

The Republican-backed Hispanic Leadership Network is hosting a conference in Florida to "provide a unique opportunity for center-right leaders to speak with—and more importantly listen to—the Hispanic community," according to conference co-chair Jeb Bush. But the question on the minds of many political observers is: will the GOP finally hear what Latino voters have to say?