Excerpts from POLITICO  

By: Reince Priebus

April 17, 2012

“Latinos are the fastest growing demographic group in the United States. This year alone, 500,000 Latinos will turn 18, making them eligible to vote. And after more than three years of President Barack Obama’s policies, most Latino voters are demanding a new direction. A majority of likely Latino voters now say that America is on the wrong track, according to a recent Tarrance Group survey.

“Republicans are working hard to engage with the Latino community and to offer that new direction. Obama may have won the Latino vote in 2008, but his record of broken promises makes him a less formidable candidate in 2012.

“The Republican National Committee announced a dramatic expansion of its Hispanic Outreach program earlier this year – including new staff, new initiatives and a new social media strategy. We have launched an innovative bilingual mobile messaging campaign, recruited activists and volunteers and continued taking our message to Spanish-language radio and TV stations.

“We’ve deployed state directors for Hispanic Outreach in Colorado, Florida and Nevada. We will add Virginia, North Carolina, and New Mexico by the end of April. These directors will oversee a network of staff and volunteers and work in conjunction with the RNC’s National Hispanic Outreach director and state parties…

“For more than three years, Democrats passed policies that have hurt Latino families and businesses. They are struggling, like all Americans, with higher prices for gas and groceries. But Latinos also face an unemployment rate that is higher than the national average. Rather than listening to Latino voters’ needs and desires, Obama has done the opposite…

“‘Hope and change’ ring hollow now that Obama has failed to deliver on everything from jobs and the economy to energy and housing.

“We cannot afford four more years of this. That’s why Republicans will be working to engage with the Latino community across the country… Our bilingual engagement will focus on interacting with voters where they live and where they work, while building relationships that last for years to come.”