GOP loses ground with Hispanics

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WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Gains that the Republican Party had made among Hispanics in recent U.S. elections were reversed this year, analysts said.

In 2004 about 44 percent of Latinos supported Republican President George W. Bush's re-election -- up 9 points from the share of Hispanics who supported Bush's first run for the White House in 2000. Today, those gains appear to have evaporated, Politico reported Sunday.

In the 2008 presidential election, Republican John McCain won just 31 percent of the Hispanic vote.

Politico said Bush won 54 percent of Latino Protestants in 2004, but Democrat Barack Obama won 67 percent of those voters on Nov, 4.

"The percent of the white electorate is dropping every election cycle and when you look ahead at America, black and Hispanic, by age bracket, there is a demographic trend that is obvious -- our country is becoming more diverse," McCain pollster Bill McInturff said. "There are any number of states that McCain just lost that he got the same percent of the white vote that Bush did in 2004."