Lincoln Project Co-Founder Mike Madrid: Latino Voters Have an Urgent Warning for Democrats

How could it be that the Democratic Party is losing Latino voters to the Trumpist Republican Party? How could it be that Democrats are losing support from blue collar workers? Both things are happening — and they’re related, according to our guest this time

Mike Madrid is a co-founder of the Lincoln Project of Never-Trump Republicans. He’s a longtime political consultant for candidates of both parties. And he’s a leading expert on Latino voting. Mike says Latino voters are sounding an urgent alarm for the Democratic Party about how it may lose the presidency and more, by losing its working class base. And Mike believes that’s not just a problem for Democrats: At this time in our history, democracy needs Democrats to win.

Mike says the problem is that Democrats have increasingly become the party of a well-educated, well-intentioned but disconnected elite. He recently wrote an op-ed for the New York Times called “While Democrats Debate ‘Latinx,’ Latinos Head to the G.O.P.” In it, he writes this:

Commonly used by media, political and academic elites as a sign of gender inclusivity, “Latinx” is virtually nonexistent in the communities it refers to…

This was not a sign of intolerance but rather was emblematic of one class with the luxury of being consumed with such matters trying to impose its values on working-class families trying to keep up with paying the rent. Members of the Democratic Party don’t just live in a distinct cultural bubble removed from the realities of their blue-collar counterparts; they are so removed from the rapidly growing Hispanic working class that many of them are now literally speaking a different language.

“Mike Madrid is a rare combination of someone with deep knowledge of both the theory and practice of politics, who can explain both clearly,” says host Spencer Critchley. “And he sets an example for what it means to put country over party.”

Links

• “While Democrats Debate ‘Latinx,’ Latinos Head to the G.O.P.” — New York Times, March 22, 2022
• “Mike Madrid of the Lincoln Project: Why and How Republican Campaign Experts Are Trying to Defeat a Republican President” — Dastardly Cleverness in the Service of Good, Oct. 1, 2020
• “Saving Democracy: The Way Forward” — Dastardly Cleverness in the Service of Good, March 26, 2019

Also mentioned in this episode:

• What’s the Matter With Kansas? (2004), Thomas Frank
• “Rich State, Poor State, Red State, Blue State: What’s the Matter with Connecticut?” (SSRN, 2007), Andrew Gelman et al
• The Emerging Democratic Majority (2002), Ruy Teixeira

Mike Madrid

From GrassrootsLab.com:

Mike Madrid is a communications expert and a nationally recognized expert on Latino voting trends. He graduated from the Edmund G. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1997, where he wrote his senior thesis on Latino politics and the perspective that politicization of emerging Latino voter groups in Southwestern states was unique in American history. The work focused largely on a critical assessment of professor Peter Skerry’s work “Mexican Americans: The Ambivalent Minority” and addressed questions surrounding the experience of Mexican American politicization as a choice between the pursuit of an aggrieved racial minority or a more typical assimilative integration into the broader political and social culture of the United States.

The completion of his thesis at Georgetown University in Washington DC on Latino voters became the basis for his pioneering work on Latino communications and outreach strategies in California, Texas, Florida and nationwide. He has served as the press secretary for the California Assembly Republican leader and as the political director for the California Republican Party. In these roles, Madrid played a key role in pioneering Latino outreach and communications strategies.

In 2001 he was named as one of America’s “Most Influential Hispanics” by Hispanic Business Magazine. He is a regular commentator on Latino political issues in statewide and national media publications.

Since 2000, Madrid has also developed an expertise in local governments in California. He served as the public affairs director to the League of California Cities. In that role, he was instrumental in the passage of Proposition 1A (The Local Taxpayer Protection Act), a historic achievement that constitutionally protected local government revenues from state raids. The measure received 84% of the vote—one of the highest percentages in California history.

In 2011, Madrid helped develop the Leadership California Institute, an organization dedicated to educating and training future California leaders.

Madrid is the editor and publisher of California City News, a news site dedicated to “the best politics, policy and practices of local government in California.”