As far as political strategists go, President Obama is probably not the average House Republican’s first choice. But according to several members, Obama argued in a meeting with GOP members on Wednesday that they needed to pass immigration reform in order to win elections against Democrats.
“He said that actually implementing immigration reform would actually benefit — I’m just stating what he said — that it would actually benefit Republicans more than it would Democrats,” Rep. Scott Rigell (R-VA) told the Associated Press.
According to the AP, several members described Obama laying out the case that Democrats are already maxing out their share of the Latino vote so any progress on the issue in Congress can only improve their standing. Rep. Phil Roe (R-TN) said Republicans responded with “light chuckles.”
