Faith, Family, and the Rising Political Power of Latino Americans

Well, welcome to CPAC Latino. I'm honored to have this rock star panel. We're honored to be joined by three conservative changemakers, Congresswoman, well, former Congresswoman Mayra Flores. She was the first Mexican born woman in Congress, a fierce defender of faith, family and freedom. Thank you. Muchas gracias. An honor to have you. Jaime Flores, RNC's voice to the Hispanic community building bridges with truth and conviction. Thank you so much for joining us. And Jenny Corn, deputy assistant to the president. Thank you so much for coming from the White House to join. So I'm going to start Jen with you. Too often people in our communities believe political power is for other people, right? So not for us. What would you say to the young Latina, the single mom or the small business owner who's sitting here right now, thinking they'll never be in a position of power and influence that it's not possible for them? What would you respond to that? Thank you very much, Gabby. So wonderful to be with you. Un placer estar con ustedes. Y yo voy a hablar en inglés porque estoy mas inteligente en inglés que en español. So this is a great question because I'm deputy assistant to the president at the White House and I run the White House faith office. I'm the director. And I would never think that a little girl like me, I was born in East LA in California to a mom who was born in Guadalajara, who my grandparents had a sixth grade education and trekked across Mexico to then come on the Bracero program. And my grandfather came back and forth and back and forth. And I share this story because my mom made me love this country so much. She said the most beautiful thing to her was the American flag waving against the San Diego blue sky and how excited she was that her shoes didn't get dirty. And I said, Mom, what do you mean your shoes didn't get dirty? She goes, because here in San Diego, all the roads and the sidewalks are paved over and they had lived in all dirt roads. And so who would think a little girl like me, we didn't come from money, we didn't come from politics, would end up working at the White House. This is my third time working at the White House as the highest ranking Latina. Wow. And that's inspiring. Come on. And I started by doing voter registration in LA. I said it was very important to get Latinos to register to vote because you don't have a voice if you're not registered to vote. And if you don't vote and get out to vote and know the issues, then you also don't have a voice. And Latinos are going to be the one third of the population by 2050. We have power, we have voting power, we have economic power, we have our voices. And so my job has always been to go out into the community to educate, to equip and to mobilize the Latino community. And we saw that with President Trump, he got 46% of the Latino vote, the highest ever of any Republican president in history. And so that Latino vote is so important. So what I would say to that mom, or really to any Latino is you need to get involved. If someone like me could get involved and I would go door to door, I do phone calls. And what I realized is when I talked to the person about the policy or that candidate that I was supporting, that if I was edgy, if I knew my stuff, and I was passionate, I could convince that person nine times out of 10 to vote my way. But then I got 10 more people to do that. And 100 more people. Now I'm impacting millions of people to get involved and to be part of policymaking. And if someone says to you, I don't like politics, politics matters because policy matters. And policy matters because it affects people and all of our people matter. So Latinos, we've got the numbers, we've got the voting power, we've got the economy, you need to get involved, whether that's a city council level at the state rep level at the state level, or how I am now at the national level. And if you want to get involved with us, I just want to thank mercy and match slap. They've been dear friends of mine since 2004. I'm happy to partner with you. If you want to partner with the White House, we're happy to have you on board. Wow, that's amazing. It's incredible how one event can open so many doors and opportunities. I always say it takes one connection, one event, one breakthrough to completely transform your life. I really believe that because it's happened to me. So Jaime, Latinos are the future of this country. We know it, we have the numbers, the statistics to back that up, not just as voters, but as leaders. What do you believe is the most powerful step someone can take today, whether it's running for office building generational wealth or owning their voice to become a real force in shaping the future of America? As Jenny said, we need to participate. The first step I think it's join the Republican Party at your level, in your town, in your state, in your county, everywhere you can. Become a candidate if necessary. Be trained for that purpose. Get together with other people that have the same intentions that you have, that have the same ideas that you share with them to solve the problems that we all have to face every single day, in every single phase of our life. We need to help the education system to get better. We need to help the health care system to get better. And we're doing it as Republicans. Let me give you some facts that we can talk about. A significant percentage of Latinos have been changing from Democrats to Republicans in the last six or eight years. And people ask me, why? I have given some interviews for newspapers and magazines and TV stations and they all ask the same thing. How is it that Hispanics are becoming Republicans? First, President Reagan used to say, Hispanics are Republicans. They just don't know yet. Okay, we're finding out. We've been finding out since 2016, 2012 probably. And the numbers show that very, very well. If you see, I have my ears so I don't make any mistakes. 42% of Latinos cast their vote for President Trump in 2024. That's 42%. In 2016, we had only 28%. And in 2020, we had 32%. So we jumped from 28 to 32 to 42 that we have now. And probably in 2026, we're going to have more Latinos. Among other things, because Latinos found out that they align much better with the values and principles of the Republican Party than with those of the Democrat Party. And one of the reasons that Hispanics are moving from Democrats to Republicans is because we got tired of taking for granted for way too long and have made promises that they never kept. So that's why we're becoming Republicans. So the first thing that our people need to do is, guys, not because you're Hispanics, you need to be Democrats. We're Republicans. Please find out.