Rubio Pollster: GOP Needs 40 Percent of Latino Vote for 2016 Win

A pollster for 2016 Republican presidential contender Marco Rubio said that the Florida senator was uniquely positioned to capture the minimum percentage of the Latino vote needed for the GOP to win the White House, the National Journal reported.

Whit Ayres said that Republicans must win about 30 percent of the overall nonwhite vote, and more than 40 percent of crucial Latino support, to succeed.

Among Hispanics, that's something the party hasn't done in more than a decade: While George W. Bush captured 44 percent of Latinos in 2004,  John McCain pulled 31 percent in 2008 and Mitt Romney won just 27 percent in 2012, the Journal reported.

"A Republican nominee is going to need to be somewhere in the mid-forties, or better, among Hispanic voters," Ayres told a Christian Science Monitor breakfast.

He said his client is "extraordinarily talented" and could be "transformational" in expanding the GOP's attractiveness to Latinos.

Americans of Hispanic heritage make up roughly 8.4 percent of all voters and that ratio is growing fast. But Latinos tend to be put off by the positions Republicans take on illegal immigration and national healthcare, according to the Journal.

Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, speaks Spanish and has been successful in capturing Latino votes in Florida.

"Republicans are one candidate and one election away from resurrection," Ayres told the Monitor. "The Republican nominee in [2016] will redefine the Republican Party in his or her image."

Rubio has detailed his approach to immigration reform in his book "American Dreams." He has also set forth alternative ideas to the Affordable Care Act.

At least two other GOP hopefuls can be expected to make a strong pitch to Hispanic voters. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz will court Spanish-speaking voters though he has only  conversational command of the language. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who speaks excellent Spanish, will also appeal to Latinos.

Ayres also said that a presidential candidate who is viewed as anti-gay "will never connect with people under 30-years-old" of either party.

The Republican Party needs "more than anything else," to adopt "a tone and an attitude of inclusion and acceptance" to win in 2016, he told the Monitor gathering.

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