Republicans work to win over Hispanics at Dallas convention as polls show 24 gains faltering

DALLAS — Republicans are aggressively courting Hispanic voters at the GOP’s midterm convention — highlighting Mexican-American candidates and hammering home messaging that worked two years ago in a bid to reverse softening support.The nation’s largest ethnic minority — comprising more than one in eight voters — could decide who holds the balance of power on Capitol Hill come January, and Republicans acknowledged that reality by lining up three Mexican-American House candidates to speak on the first day of the convention Wednesday, with two more scheduled to take the stage Thursday.President Trump won more than half of foreign-born Hispanic voters in 2024 by claiming that Democrats would make America resemble socialist-governed Cuba and Venezuela and pledging to end illegal immigration while boosting wages with tax cuts on overtime and tips.Republican hopes for a long-term realignment, however, have been damped by recent polls showing support for the party among Latinos dipping to 35% or lower.Wednesday’s speakers reprised the 2024 GOP message, painting Democrats as socialists while crowing about new tax breaks and the near-elimination of illegal border crossings.The very first speaker after Wednesday’s opening prayer, Air Force veteran and former kickboxing gym owner Carlos De La Cruz, warned that Democrats would bring “a return to open borders and higher taxes.”“I’ve seen what these criminal enterprises do to our communities and I’ve seen what happens when politicians look the other way,” said De La Cruz, who is running in a district that covers parts of San Antonio and some of its suburbs.“We cannot go back to the lawlessness that we experienced under Democrats … I’ll work for safe streets, a strong economy and a country where our kids can grow up free and have a future.”De La Cruz was followed by his sister, current Rio Grande Valley Rep.Monica de la Cruz, who recalled their grandfather picking watermelons “in the hot Texas ...