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Thanks To Donald Trump, The RNC Just Lost A Crucial Hispanic Official

CREDIT: DVT/STAR MAX/IPX
CREDIT: DVT/STAR MAX/IPX

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, known for his brash anti-immigrant, anti-Latino sentiment, may profess love for Latinos, but the feeling is far from mutual. In fact, he’s already holding to his campaign promise of driving out Latinos. This time, it’s an in-house job.

In the latest indication that Latino Americans feel uncomfortable with Trump’s rhetoric, Ruth Guerra, the Republican National Committee’s director of Hispanic media relations, will step down from her role at the end of this month — a “rare” move for party staff members particularly during a presidential campaign.

Guerra, whose parents are from Mexico and who grew up along the southern U.S. border in McAllen, Texas, will be resigning after nearly two years in the role.

The New York Times, which first broke the news, reported that Guerra had “told colleagues this year that she was uncomfortable working for Mr. Trump, according two R.N.C. aides who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the difficulties surrounding the party’s presumptive standard-bearer.”

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“I’ve had a great nearly two years at the R.N.C., and I’m excited for the new opportunities that I will have at A.A.N,” Guerra said, though she did not mention Trump by name.

Since Trump’s campaign announcement last June, Guerra has had to defend him on television and in public appearances, which left her increasingly exhausted, the Washington Post reported.

A sign sits near the site where Marcelo Lucero was killed in Patchogue, N.Y., on Wednesday, April, 13, 2016. The Rev. Alan Ramirez, an adviser to the family of Lucero, has called for Donald Trump to cancel a planned appearance at a Suffolk County Republican Committee fundraiser on Thursday, April 14, in Patchogue, because it is being held at a nightclub just blocks from where a gang of teenagers killed Lucero in November 2008. CREDIT: AP Photo/Frank Eltman
A sign sits near the site where Marcelo Lucero was killed in Patchogue, N.Y., on Wednesday, April, 13, 2016. The Rev. Alan Ramirez, an adviser to the family of Lucero, has called for Donald Trump to cancel a planned appearance at a Suffolk County Republican Committee fundraiser on Thursday, April 14, in Patchogue, because it is being held at a nightclub just blocks from where a gang of teenagers killed Lucero in November 2008. CREDIT: AP Photo/Frank Eltman

Trump built his campaign on harsh rhetoric surrounding immigrants, particularly those of Hispanic descent. He has broadly characterized undocumented immigrants from Mexico as rapists, drug dealers, and criminals. He has also called to build up the border wall along the southern U.S.-Mexico border and to kick out the country’s 11.3 million undocumented population.

Guerra will be going to work at the right-leaning super PAC American Action Network, a move that would land her at a “less prestigious job at a super PAC, which focuses on down-ballot races and thus will not require her to defend Trump,” the Washington Post reported.

Guerra is not the only person whose exit has been expedited by Trump. At least two other Republican National Committee staff members — the director of African American outreach and communications director for black media — stepped down in March.

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“As a Hispanic, I know that we have an opportunity with Hispanics/Latinos — they want to hear from us and want to know that we care,” Guerra previously said. “The Republican National Committee has been showing up and engaging with all communities like never before, but we can all do more and a lot more work needs to be done.”

This Taco Bowl Is What Donald Trump Is Offering As Hispanic OutreachImmigration by CREDIT: AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast If a taco bowl is presumptive Republican presidential nominee…thinkprogress.orgSince the release of an “autopsy report” that advised the Republican Party to embrace and court minority voters, Trump has destroyed many inroads that the RNC has tried to bridge with these voters. Trump has in fact done so poorly with minority voters that thousands of immigrants are naturalizing this year so that they can vote against him. What’s more, an April America’s Voice and Latino Decisions poll found that 79 percent of voters had a “very unfavorable” opinion of Trump, with a total of 87 percent of Latinos finding him generally unfavorable.

“Either we’re going to choose a model where we’re going to understand and integrate and accommodate this demographic and build a majority, or we’re going to attack it and be afraid of it, and talk about building walls,” Mike Madrid, a conservative campaign consultant who worked on both of former President George W. Bush’s campaigns, cautioned Republican activists at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in March. “The choice is clear, folks. We’re either going to represent the emerging new America, or we’re not.”