The Sconi

 The national Republican Party is betting there are a lot of Carolina Castillos in the world.

A longtime Democrat, Castillo now votes Republican, insisting she is totally frustrated with the pattern of Democrats saying one thing and doing another once they are in power.

Castillo told Florida’s Voice she views Biden Administration representative Juan Gonzalez’s recent meeting with socialist President Maduro of Venezuela in which he asked for oil as a “betrayal to Latinos.”

"We take these issues seriously in South Florida. Plus, Democrats are doing away with basic social and economic freedoms that we should have as Americans," she said.

Also noting a chasm on social issues, she said, "Hispanics are mostly conservative. We are traditional; we love God and family."

Castillo said it's all part of the radicalization of the Democratic Party, which is only serving to turn off more Hispanic voters and move them to register Independent and Republican.

A resident of Florida's Miami-Dade County, Castillo said she is also opposed to the way Democrats have handled the ongoing border crisis. She is pushing for more control, even if it means more border patrol agents and perhaps the National Guard.

Identifying as pro-women and pro-LGBTQ rights, Castillo nonetheless said she feels her values no longer align with the Democratic Party.

“The party is unrecognizable,” she said. “They’ve all been radicalized. So I had to leave. They don’t represent my values.”

GOP leaders appear to be taking note of it all, with party members recently tweeting: “Democrats have proven time and time again to be out of touch & their values do not align with the Latino community.”

The Wall Street Journal recently reported Latino voters who might have voted for Democrats in 2020 are in the midst of turning toward voting Republican in the fast-approaching midterms. The Journal said the fastest-growing population of voters is Latinos, representing more than 10% of the vote in 2020 and continuously expanding.

With a rising number of working-class Latino voters expressing they are not happy with many of the policies put forth by President Joe Biden and no longer feel aligned with the party, the WSJ report details how that sector has now switched over to the Republican Party by 11 points. Among other things many Latinos support strict border security laws in order to protect against the influx of illegal drugs and human trafficking.

In addition, The Journal reports many seeking citizenship are on record in asserting they do not see Democratic policies as the solution.

In a recent Texas Tribune survey, 57% of Texas Hispanics and 60% of South Texas Hispanics agreed they want more border security, according to an op-ed in Washington Examiner. The article goes on to blame the Biden Administration’s removal of the Remain in Mexico policy as one of the biggest factors leading to the flood of illegal crossings.

Researchers also found that 61% of Texas Hispanics are “bothered by the direction” the Democratic Party has gone, according to Washington Examiner. The op-ed says, “As in the late 1960s, it (Democratic Party) is on a collision course with ethnic minorities, who did so much to prop it up over the years in the mistaken belief that Democrats had something to offer working families.”

One of the clearest examples of what all the recent numbers suggest is the election of Mayra Flores, a Trump-endorsed Republican, who joined Congress as the first Mexican-born woman in a special election in June. Flores is now the face of Texas' historically Democrat 34th district, which voted blue in the 2012, 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.  According to Ballotpedia, she is running again in the midterms in a district that is 84.5% Hispanic.

In a news release, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) projects that 11.6 million Latinos will vote this November. Additionally, Latinos represent 9.8% of voters in 2022, up 34.1% since 2014, according to NALEO.

In Wisconsin, the Latino vote is expected to be critical, with Wisconsin Public Radio reporting GOP initiatives are aimed at winning back some of the Hispanic vote, which could be plentiful based on U.S. Census reports of a 30% increase in the state's Latino population over the last decade. On top of that, Wisconsin Latinos have a history of voting GOP. Geraldo Cadava, a professor in a related field at Northwestern University, says between a quarter and a third of Latinos historically vote Republican in the state.