In February, I sat down with the Republican National Committee's director of Hispanic media, Ruth Guerra. She told me about her strategy for winning Latino voters in the fall.
"You can't parachute into any community five to six months before an election, or even three months before an election, and ask people for their vote," she said for a profile as part of Fusion's series The 30. "You have to earn their trust."
But that was before the Republican Party chose as its nominee a candidate who calls Mexican immigrants "rapists," blames the Latino population for high crime rates, and mocks high-ranking Latina Republicans in his own party. Not to mention the taco bowl.
Now Guerra is parting ways with the RNC, according to a report by The New York Times.
She'll take a position at American Action Network, a super PAC devoted to helping Republicans win seats in the House and Senate.
According to the Times, Guerra had told coworkers that she was uncomfortable about the RNC's relationship with Donald Trump.
His demagogic comments about immigrants and Latinos have been a consistent problem for RNC chairman Reince Priebus. After Mitt Romney's loss in the 2012 presidential election, Preibus oversaw the publication of a 100-page "autopsy report," which encouraged the party to change its tone on Latino issues and embrace comprehensive immigration reform.
Guerra, who did not respond to a request for comment from Fusion, is the latest in a series of high-level minority staffers who have recently left the RNC.
In late March, Kristal Quarker-Hartsfield resigned from her post as the committee's director of African-American Outreach. Just weeks before that, Orlando Watson resigned as the director for black media.
In December 2015, Raffi Williams, son of Fox News personality Juan Williams, stepped down from his post as deputy press secretary for the RNC. And a month before that, Tara Wall, one of the RNC's most experienced black staffers, left her job as senior strategist for media and engagement.
In a press release on Wednesday, the RNC announced that Guerra would be replaced by Helen Aguirre Ferré. The Democratic National Committee quickly released a clip of Ferré criticizing Trump for his comments about women in an appearance on Univision.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=x_a2-z8Ujx8
The following is an English translation of her comments.
Well, I think that consolidates opposition to Donald Trump—because Donald Trump hasn’t only said this, which annoys and makes women feel uncomfortable. He’s also gone after reporters, like Megyn Kelly from Fox News, what he’s said about Mexicans. … I think what we’ve seen is a pattern from Donald Trump that’s anti-women. I'm not going to tell you he's a misogynist … but I do think there's something that bothers him about strong and independent women.
We'll see how long she decides to stay in that post.