In the New York Times, columnist Thomas B. Edsall writes:

Can Jeb Bush Defy the Tea Party and Win?

JAN. 13, 2015

… A question that polling does not answer is how much leeway Jeb Bush’s unique ties to Hispanic America buy him. In April 2013, Manuel Roig-Franzia and Peter Wallsten of The Washington Post described Bush’s relationship with Hispanic voters:

Living in Miami, mixing effortlessly with that city’s Cuban American power base and speaking near-flawless Spanish, Bush has managed to embody an adopted culture that has enthusiastically adopted him. As former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez put it at last week’s Hispanic Leadership Network conference in Miami, the former Florida governor is “just as Hispanic as everyone in this room, and maybe a little more.”

The Post story continues:

“Who do you want as a candidate?” asked Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Cuban American Republican from Miami. “Imagine if you could find somebody who is married to a Mexican … then they have children who look Hispanic. Then it would be like, ‘There’s nobody better.’ It’s him.”