This visual goes a long way in explaining why Republicans decided to get on board with immigration reform.
The Republican share of the Hispanic vote is getting smaller and smaller with each presidential election, while the opposite is true for Democrats.
You can see this happening not only on the national level, but also in traditionally red states. In 2004, for example, in Arizona, George W. Bush lost the Hispanic vote to John Kerry by 13 percentage points. That gap widened to 55 points in 2012 when Mitt Romney garnered only 22% of the Hispanic vote to Barack Obama’s 77%.
Even deep red states like Texas registered their dismay. John McCain lost the Hispanic vote by 28 points to Barack Obama in 2008, but Mitt Romney managed to make even that loss look good. Romney finished 41 percentage points behind Obama among Hispanic voters in Texas. You can check out the trend in other states here.
