The Republican National Committee on Thursday announced a new outreach initiative to target minority voters – more specifically to reach immigrants seeking to get U.S. citizenship.
The new campaign, dubbed the Republican Civics Initiative, will offer a 10-hour course for lawful permanent residents to prepare for the civics portion of the naturalization test. The course will be split into four sections with a celebration upon completion, per the RNC.
The course will help prepare test-takers for questions like “When was the Declaration of Independence signed?” and “How many branches of government are there?”
“The RNC is growing our Party through purposeful education and engagement. Our commitment to provide opportunities for all to live out the American dream is broadening our base because our ideas transcend all backgrounds,” RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement. “Unlike Democrats, Republicans do not take minority communities for granted and we will continue to work to earn each vote ahead of November.”
The first session is being hosted on Thursday, July 14 at the RNC Hispanic Community Center in Doral, Florida. Future sessions will be held across additional battleground states in the months to come, including in Texas, Georgia, Nevada, California, Pennsylvania and others.
The civics portion of the naturalization test was updated in 2020. Applicants are now given an oral test where they are asked 20 questions from a list of 128, and must answer at least 12 of the questions correctly in order to pass. The 2008 version of the civics test asked up to 10 questions out of 100, with at least six correct answers needed to pass the test.
Applicants must also demonstrate their ability to speak, read and write in English during the naturalization interview.
The Republican Civics Initiative is the latest effort from the GOP to gather more support from minority voters, which aims to naturalize many of the eligible 9.2 million lawful permanent residents – or “green card” holders – who are eligible as of Jan. 2021. Lawful permanent residents can be employed in the United States, own property, join the Armed Forces and receive financial aid from institutions of higher education, but are not eligible to vote.
Since late 2021, the GOP has been propping up community centers in states across the country to target primarily Hispanic and Latino voters. Hallie Balch, the communications director for RNC California, said three of the 33 centers reside in the Golden State.
“Hispanic values are notoriously values of family, of prosperity, of kind of community,” she said in an interview with local NBC affiliate KGET-TV 17. “And so that's just what we're trying to encourage because, as we like to say, Hispanic values are Republican values. So that's kind of the gap that we're trying to bridge.”
Others have opened in Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia, Florida and more.
More recently, the GOP capitalized on a gaffe from first lady Dr. Jill Biden – who this week apologized after receiving blowback for saying the Latino community is “as unique” as breakfast tacos – with t-shirts that read: “Not your breakfast taco.”
And the outreach efforts just might be working to pull Hispanic and Latino voters away from the Democratic party. Though President Joe Biden held on to a majority of the Hispanic vote in the 2020 presidential elections, Donald Trump did make gains in the group compared to the 2016 elections, per Pew Research.
A more recent poll from the New York Times / Siena College found Biden’s approval rating among the Hispanic and Latino population in the U.S. has dropped sharply, with over 60% of respondents saying they strongly or somewhat disapproved of the president in early July.
Of the Hispanic and Latino respondents who disapproved of Biden’s performance, 54% said they would choose to back a different candidate because of his poor job in office – the highest out of any demographic included in the survey.