It may have been an off-hand remark.

But "that Mexican thing" isn't going to go away anytime soon.

During Tuesday's vice presidential debate between Sen.Tim Kaine and Gov. Mike Pence, Kaine repeated Trump's comments about Mexicans to see if Pence would defend the GOP presidential nominee.

Instead, Pence seemed dismissive and referred to Kaine bringing up "that Mexican thing."

Many Latino Democrats and Republicans cringed when they heard it and knew it would be offensive.

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"I knew as soon as he said it that it would be taken that way," said Victor Medina, a Dallas resident who is the Texas leader of the Café con Leche Republicans.

"I think he doesn't realize just how offended Latinos are with Trump. He only sees the 'Mexican thing' as a political tool of the Democrats, but it isn't. It is a real problem that needs to be addressed."

Would it be better if Republicans simply banned the words "Mexico," "Mexican," "Latino" and "Hispanic" from their vocabulary?

Medina believes it would be.

"Let Trump talk about a wall all he wants. He already has the anti-immigration vote. What he doesn't need is to give Democrats and Latinos ammunition — which is what Pence just did."

Stephanie A. Martin, assistant professor, division of corporate communication and public affairs at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University, was aghast but not totally surprised when she heard it.

She doesn't believe people in the Trump campaign are especially interested in whether Latino voters are offended by their public rhetoric.

"They are interested in talking tough and saying what a particular portion of their base wants to hear," she said by email. "The dissent against undocumented immigrants in their base matters much more to them then the lived experience or dissent of Latino voters."

And, therefore, Pence went on to paint immigrants as criminals, she said, "even though statistics show that undocumented immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than do American citizens."

It's comments like Pence's, as well as Trump's initial comments about Mexicans, that are the reason Trump is not expected to get more than 18 to 20 percent of the Latino vote, according to Latino Decisions, a national polling and research firm.

"In terms of the share of the Latino vote that GOP presidential candidates are going to get, this will be the lowest in history," said Adrian Pantoja, senior analyst for Latino Decisions.

"It will be dismal and historic— no Republican has done as bad. And it's just another example of a campaign that has not been engaged with Latino voters and has not taken them seriously."

And that's what Pence's comment epitomized, said Melissa Salas Blair, president and research principal of Puentes, a marketing and research firm that has done polling for political campaigns and donors across the country.

"How dismissive" — that was her first reaction, she said by email.

And not only Pence, but also Trump and others.

"They dismissed our concerns when Trump first announced, and that same attitude was highlighted by Pence. They are dismissing us, and that is at the core of all this."

Her next thought was a common one among countless Mexican-Americans — images of immigrant grandparents struggling and sacrificing in their new homeland for their children and grandchildren.

And that is why, amigos, "that Mexican thing" could end up becoming "that voting thing."

Twitter: @molivera79