Don’t you think that Cruz and Rubio have names are that are too Hispanic sounding for Republican primary voters?[/quote]
Well, I read a lot of Nate Silver, so half of what I do is just regurgitate.
Despite his last name, Cruz doesn’t look or sound Latino. Apparently his paternal grandfather was Spanish. He has family connections to Cuba through his father, but he was born in Canada. I believe his mother is white. So, all in all, for many Republican voters he probably “rounds up” to white, or at least white enough.
To give credit to the Republican party, Ben Carson was the front runner for a while, despite being grossly unqualified. So clearly at least a good chunk of the Republican party is willing to look past race and ethnicity.
To anyone with a sense of history, Cubans who fled Castro get a certain pass, because they were fleeing Communism, the Greatest Threat of All.
Of course there is the possibility their non-white last names may hurt both a bit on the edges vs. Trump. But the path to victory isn’t necessarily to take Trump’s voters as much as to win over a coalition of the non-Trump voters and become the Anti-Trump candidate.
Smart Republicans should love the fact that in the general election Rubio likely would do way better among Latino voters than most of the other candidates.
So the short answer about names too Hispanic sounding for Republican primary voters? In some states, yes, but most of those who really care probably would have gone for Trump anyways.
