For a long time the conventional wisdom has been that as the Hispanic population grows, the Republican Party will need to gain more appeal to voters outside its non-Hispanic white base. Logically, the alternative has always been to just do even better among white voters, just the way that Republicans regularly win elections in Mississippi despite its large and heavily Democratic black population.
The latest Pew data on party identification shows scenario two playing out with Republicans losing ground among Hispanics but posting strong gains with white voters:
Notably, the gains were particularly large among two sub-sets of white voters who hadn’t previously had warm sentiments toward Republicans — poor white people and young white people. Republicans now have a solid majority among whites of all ages, and they’re making progress toward eliminating the income gradient as well.