THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

As time goes by, the Republican Party more and more needs non white, non racist voters to win elections. Thanks to the blatantly appalling racism of leading candidate Donald Trump. the possibility of those voters being Latinos is fading in the distance.

erman Maldonado could back a Republican. But it’s not likely, not at a time when Donald Trump is calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals.

“The whole GOP base, they tend to attack most of our people,” said the graphic designer, who came to this country from Mexico 25 years ago.

That, in a nutshell, is the crushing challenge Republicans face in 2016, a problem that looms as a serious blow to their hopes of winning in swing states such as Nevada.

Talk to Latinos throughout the Las Vegas area and their views are strikingly similar. Top concerns are better schools, more ability to grow their own businesses and leaders who share their strong religious and moral beliefs.

That gives Republicans tremendous potential. And in some states, including Nevada, the party has done well among Latinos. Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval is Mexican-American. New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, the nation’s first female Hispanic governor, was re-elected overwhelmingly last year. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott won 44 percent of Latinos in 2014. President George W. Bush won 39 percent of Nevada’s Hispanic vote in 2004.

Today, though, there’s Trump, as well as a party that’s seen as too eager to send immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally back out of the country.

“We’re digging a very, very deep hole,” said Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev.

Republican Latino voters say they’re well aware of the difficulty of convincing friends and family to join them.

Immigration is the gateway to the community’s heart. Most Latinos in Nevada are either immigrants themselves or know someone who recently arrived in this country. Nevada’s population is about 27 percent Hispanic, and 4 of 5 are of Mexican origin.

When Latinos hear some Republicans eager to deport immigrants here illegally, or refer to them in offensive ways, they recoil.

To win Donald Trump has been greatly exaggerating the fears of the white Republican base, a move that automatically pushes aside any other demographic so desperately needed by the party to win.