{"id":17843,"date":"2018-11-08T15:25:19","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T20:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=17843"},"modified":"2018-12-28T09:32:42","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T14:32:42","slug":"dont-tell-but-immigration-helped-republicans-on-tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2018\/11\/08\/dont-tell-but-immigration-helped-republicans-on-tuesday\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Tell, But Immigration Helped Republicans on Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Gallup\u2019s final poll<\/a> before the midterm elections, three issues were considered very important to voters \u2013 the economy, health care and immigration. President Trump sounded the trumpet on immigration at nearly every campaign stop, while Democrats did everything to avoid talking about it.<\/p>\n

Which strategy worked on election night? To be clear, there were losses and victories on all sides of the immigration issue, but the truth lies beyond the headlines.<\/p>\n

Open border voices were loudly declaring defeat for President Trump and his immigration agenda.<\/p>\n

Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, proclaimed<\/a> the mid-term elections as \u201ca STUNNING rebuke for the leaders of the hardline, anti-immigrant movement, with their champions losing badly\u201d and \u201ca complete disaster for many of the most critical and long-time leaders of the anti-immigrant movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

To back up his claim, Schulte pointed to a \u201cfew\u201d key races in which pro-enforcement candidates were defeated on Tuesday. He highlighted the losses of Kansas gubernatorial candidate Kris Kobach, Virginia Republican Reps. Dave Brat and Corey Steward and Pennsylvania Rep. Lou Barletta, a Republican challenging popular incumbent Sen. Bob Casey.<\/p>\n

He was not alone in asserting those four losses proved his assertions.<\/p>\n

In a column entitled<\/a>, \u201cHarsh Republican Restrictionists Lose Bigly in the Midterms,\u201d Reason reporter Shika Dalmia, also tagged those four as upsets of immigration hardliners. However, no sooner had he tagged their immigration stances for their downfall, he conceded that \u201cStewart and Barletta never really had a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, all four have strong immigration enforcement records. No, those records were not responsible for their defeats.<\/p>\n

In Virginia\u2019s other race, he was facing a female Democrat \u2013 and former CIA agent \u2013 who hammered Brat relentlessly<\/a> on health care, pre-existing conditions and national security and did so in a district with a heavy suburban female vote.<\/p>\n

In the end, Democrat Abigail Spanberger won by in a three-way contest by less than two percentage points. In Kansas, Democrat Laura Kelly had the advantage of running in a three-way race and having received multiple endorsements from prominent Republican officials in the state.<\/p>\n

The open border caucus, however, do not speak of defeats of Florida\u2019s Carlos Curbelo, New York\u2019s John Faso, Utah\u2019s Mia Love, or Minnesota\u2019s Erik Paulsen \u2013 all Republicans who signed the discharge petition to reopen the immigration debate in the House.<\/p>\n

At the end of Election Day, the argument that immigration hurts may have been the biggest loser according to analyses of exit poll data.<\/p>\n

\u201cPre-election fears by some Republicans that Trump\u2019s inflammatory immigration message would sink GOP candidates in tight races proved overblown,\u201d reported<\/a> Politico.<\/p>\n

While USA Today<\/a> noted that it was Latino and Asian immigrants who \u201chelped Trump and the GOP\u201d in the midterms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tough talk didn’t seem to chase away immigrant voters in significant numbers,\u201d noted the paper.<\/p>\n

According to CNN exit polls<\/a>, Democrats garnered approximately 68 percent\u00a0of the Latino vote,\u00a0slightly higher than the 66 percent\u00a0won by Hillary Clinton in 2016, but Republicans drew\u00a030 percent\u00a0of their vote — above the 28 percent\u00a0Trump earned in 2016.