How 2016 GOP Candidates, Other Than Donald Trump, Have Used Spanish
By using Spanish-language ads, GOP courts the Hispanic vote.
— -- Donald Trump may have agreed to sign a loyalty pledge to not run as a third-party candidate should he not clinch the GOP nomination for president, but the real estate mogul remains seemingly at odds with some of his Republican rivals for president over the use of the Spanish language.
This week, Trump made headlines for telling Breitbart News that fellow Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush “should really set the example by speaking English while in the United States.”
However, Bush, who married a Mexican immigrant and who speaks Spanish fluently, is not alone in using the Spanish-language during his presidential campaign. Fellow republicans, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson, have “En Español” sections on their official websites. And the Republican National Committee itself has taken to using the language to reach out to voters.
It was in 2013, the beginning of Reince Priebus’ second term as chairman of the RNC, that he “made a commitment to taking the party’s message of freedom and economic opportunity to all states and communities. By welcoming new voices and voters,” according to the party’s website.
For GOP leaders, some of those new voices they were looking to welcome were speaking the Spanish language. A press release titled “Los estamos oyendo,” translating to “We are listening,” was penned by Priebus in March 2013. The press release was written in Spanish.
“We know that we didn’t win the confidence of enough Latinos in the last election,” the press release said, translated to English.
In the months to follow, Priebus created Hispanic engagement teams across a number of states and added new positions to the RNC communications department, including a Hispanic media press secretary, Hispanic media communications director and a national field director for Hispanic initiatives.
Since then, the GOP has taken to releasing ads in both English and Spanish, or sometimes just the latter.
Back in June, the RNC released an ad criticizing Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and her change in opinion when it comes to immigration reform called “Hipocre$ia” or “Hipocro$y.”
“The ad represents the first in a series to target bilingual Latino voters with easy to share content on digital platforms,” the press release said.
Priebus has also been known to praise those who choose to speak in their constituents’ language.
At the Esperanza’s Partners and Awards event hosted by National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast and Conference in June, Priebus talked about Republican Rep. Mike Coffman of Colorado, who took intensive Spanish courses, participated in a Spanish-language debate on Univision, and is still taking Spanish classes.
“For Congressman Coffman, communicating with these constituents was important,” Priebus said. Before finishing his remarks, he said, “que Dios los Bendiga,” meaning, "may God bless you."
But Trump isn’t backing down about his opinion on the Spanish language. Just this week, after meeting with Priebus, Trump said in order to become successful, it is more appropriate to speak English.
“I think that when you get right down to it we’re a nation that speaks English,” Trump said. “And I think while we’re in this nation, we should be speaking English.”
Just a couple hours later, Priebus responded to questions about use of the Spanish language by the GOP and its practice being at odds with Trump’s.
“I think candidates can speak whatever language they want to speak,” Priebus said. “Every candidate has to do what is in the best interest of them to secure the nomination.”
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