Former Arizona governor Jan Brewer declared Friday that Arizona won’t go blue for Hillary Clinton because Hispanic Democrats “don’t vote.”
“They don’t get out and vote. They don’t vote,” she told the Boston Globe when asked if those constituents could help tip the historically conservative state to a Democratic presidential nominee.
Arizona has been trending purple for years, due in large part to the state’s significant Latino population. An Arizona Republic poll released Thursday found Clinton holding a 5-point lead in the state, which was once thought unwinnable for a Democratic presidential candidate.
Nationally, Donald Trump’s rhetoric about Latino immigrants has also helped boost Clinton’s popularity among Latino voters, with one recent Pew Research survey handing her a 39-point advantage over her Republican opponent.
Yet Brewer, an ardent Trump supporter who helped oversee the implementation of one of the most stringent immigration enforcement laws in the country, insisted that border security was the most important concern among Arizona voters.
“It’s wishful thinking on their behalf,” Brewer told the Globe of the Clinton campaign’s efforts to win the Grand Canyon State. “Donald Trump is going to secure the border and that is a very important issue in Arizona.”
Brewer was an early supporter of the real estate mogul who has praised his disparaging comments about Latinos.
After the real estate mogul made his infamous campaign announcement speech denigrating Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and “criminals,” Brewer commended him for “telling it like it really, truly is.”
