Laurie Roberts

The Arizona Republic

At long last, I finally understand the Republican Party’s strategy in Arizona.

Why Republican leaders for years have not only not courted Latino voters but have gone out of their way to turn off a generation or more of the state’s fastest growing segment of the electorate.

Why ex-Senate President Russell Pearce, the architect of Senate Bill 1070, was a rock star within the party and why Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former Gov. Jan Brewer are rock stars still.

It’s because there wasn’t any upside to courting Latino voters.

And there wasn’t any downside to insulting them.

For years, we’ve heard about the sleeping giant only to wake up the morning after every election to find that Latino voters forgot to set their alarm clocks.

This week, we’ve had hints that they may be snoring no longer.

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Going into the final few weeks of the election, Hillary Clinton has turned her attention to Arizona, a state she doesn’t need but clearly would love to have. This week, she sent $2 million, Michelle Obama, Chelsea Clinton and Bernie Sanders to make her case in this reliably red state.

That’s not the work of a candidate looking for a win. That’s the work of a candidate looking for a mandate.

Republicans don’t seem to be losing any sleep over it. They pooh-pooh the prospect of Latino voters handing Clinton a victory here, even as Democrats are returning early ballots in numbers not seen at this point in previous elections.

“Nah,” former Gov. Jan Brewer told the Boston Globe this week. “They don’t get out and vote.’’

The Globe reported that Boris Epshteyn, a senior Trump adviser, actually laughed when asked about Arizona.

“I would urge the Clinton campaign to spend as much money as possible in Arizona,” he said. “That would be great for them to do. We will win Arizona with a healthy margin.”

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By historical standards, Donald Trump should win Arizona. Democrats won here in 1948 and 1996. Every other race in the last 70 years has gone to Republicans.

By current standards, Donald Trump should win Arizona. Republicans hold both U.S. Senate seats, all statewide offices and they control the Legislature.

Brewer told the Globe that it’s “wishful thinking” that Clinton could take Arizona.

“Donald Trump is going to secure the border and that is a very important issue in Arizona,” she said. “And Hillary Clinton wants open borders. All you have to do is say that to Republicans, independents, and some Democrats. They want our border secured.”

In fact, we do want to fix that hunk of Swiss cheese we call our back-yard border. But 2016 is not 2010, when tempers were boiling and even John McCain was vowing to build the “dang fence.”

This doesn’t feel like an election in which Arizona will vote solely for the candidate who can promise the biggest wall or the toughest deportation policy.

Polls show that the state may be poised to legalize marijuana, raise the minimum wage and send Joe Arpaio into retirement. And with just 18 days to go until Election Day, that Clinton could win the state.

If I were the Republican Party, I wouldn’t be worried about how Donald Trump can hang on to win Arizona.

I’d be worried about how the Republican Party can hang on, period, if, in fact, Latino voters have finally awakened.

Laurie Roberts is a columnist for The Arizona Republic, where this piece first appeared. Follow her on Twitter: @LaurieRoberts

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