Accused of being too white, GOP in U.S. called to embrace minorities
12:15, 19 May 2009
LOS ANGELES. May 19. KAZINFORM As California voters are ready to cast their votes on Tuesday in the special election, Republicans who lost the White House in last year's presidential election have called for a change within their own party to open their arms to embrace the minorities and women, Kazinform refers to Xinhua.
Hoffenblum's criticism on the Republican Party being too white has been regarded by many republicans as to the point. As early as in 1993, columnist Douglas Mac Kinnon wrote in the USA TODAY newspaper that "GOP must reach out to blacks." But to his regret, MacKinnon wrote in a recent article: "My only question then being, why haven't they done it over the course of the last twenty years?"
According to Hoffenblum, only 31 percent of the voters in California are Republican, which is the lowest in history, and 14 of the state's 53 congressional districts have more independent voters than Republican voters.
He said the Latino and Asian populations continue to grow, but they have stopped voting Republican.
Statistics show that among the white, non-Hispanic voters in California, 42 percent are Republican and 40 percent are Democrat. Among Latinos, 57 percent are Democrat and 19 percent are Republican. Among Asians, 30 percent are Democrat and 29 percent are Republican, while 39 percent are independent.
All the congressional members elected from California from the Republican Party are white. Of the 19 Republican members of Congress, 18 are white men and one white woman.
Meanwhile, among the 33 Democratic members of Congress from California, 54 percent are women, five are Latino and three are black, and only nine are white, non-Hispanic men.
In 2008, about one million immigrants became U.S. citizens. Most of the new citizens are coming from Latin American and Asia, therefore only a few are white. Some Republicans began to worry that if the Republican Party failed to attract the minorities, they would fail to get supporters and voters in the United States.
The Republican National Committee discussed the issue on how to include more minorities in the party at a meeting in January, but the conservative policies towards abortion, same-sex marriage and illegal immigrants have turned away many Hispanics and Asians and women as well, Kazinform cites Xinhua. See www.chinaview.cn for full version.