If the GOP retakes the Senate, it will be sorely tempting for some party members – particularly anti-establishment conservatives – to conclude that the party is in good shape for 2016 and doesn’t need to change its approach.
There are two dangers associated with that. One, the Senate “map” in 2016 favors the Democrats; there will be 23 Republican seats up compared with just 10 Democratic seats – the reverse of this cycle (21 Democrats and 15 Republicans). So what works this year doesn’t necessarily translate to 2016.
Two, the electorate will be different in two years. 2016 is a presidential election year, and many more people vote in presidential years than in midterms. Demographically, marginal voters tend to be Democrats – young adults, minorities, single women. This year, the Republicans have little incentive to woo Hispanic voters, but every incentive to woo them in 2016. They probably can’t win the presidency without doing better with Hispanic voters than GOP nominee Mitt Romney did in 2012: 27 percent.
So if the Republicans win the Senate this year, the extent of the party’s crisis over Hispanic votes will be less apparent than if they fail to win the Senate.
