There have been two sides to the Republican National Convention so far this week. 

One side has featured what was expected: a grandiose, virtual happy hour to President Trump's conservative base.

The other side has been an open letter to minority voters — a bloc that the president struggles mightily with.

Republicans argue the racism argument is one not based in reality. The idea that “Republicans are racist, it’s not a party for people of color and they don’t care,” is a manufactured narrative by the media and Democrats, Republican strategist Ford O’Connell told The Hill.

O’Connell defended the president’s hard-line stance.

“The president’s making the point that [he wants] to see justice served for all Americans, but at the same time defunding the police and violence is not going to achieve that result,” O’Connell said.

Read more from Marty Johnson at The Hill

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine will deliver remarks entirely in Spanish at a rally in Arizona on Thursday, highlighting the growing importance his party places on Hispanics in presidential politics.

The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, is working to fill in what has quite literally been radio silence from Donald Trump’s campaign on Spanish language outreach efforts.

The RNC on Wednesday released an ad aimed at Hispanic voters, with the Spanish version to run on Telemundo and Univision, urging people to vote Republican. But it doesn’t mention the party’s presidential nominee by name, and Mr. Trump’s campaign has shied away from Spanish-language efforts.

In fact, he’s the first GOP nominee in years to forgo a Spanish-language version of his campaign website.

Mrs. Clinton has gone all-in on Spanish, with new ads Wednesday featuring actor Jimmy Smits speaking in Spanish. Mr. Kaine’s rally in Arizona, meanwhile, will be his second Spanish-only address in a matter of weeks. He already delivered such a speech at a church service in Miami last month.

“The Trump campaign has largely left this to the RNC and various super PACs,” said GOP strategist Ford O’Connell. “This is hardly a head-scratcher when you realize they’re not even waging a traditional air war overall.”

Read more from David Sherifinski at The Washington Times

Latina civil rights icon Dolores Huerta is working to mobilize Latinos to keep Donald Trump out of the White House and criticizing GOPers for not denouncing the candidate who she said is now “the face of the Republican Party.”

Huerta joined with People for the American Way (PFAW) and former Miss Universe Alicia Machado to launch "Donald Trump's Year of Hate" on the anniversary of Trump's campaign announcement. The program seeks to reinforce the idea that Trump, with the complacency of the party, has harmed Latinos in the United States through his campaign rhetoric.

That rhetoric has waned Republican Party leaders' enthusiasm for the presumptive nominee in the past two weeks, following his racially tinted attack on federal judge Gonzalo Curiel and a heavily criticized response to the mass shooting in an Orlando nightclub that left 49 people dead, including many Latinos.

Trump has been admonished by party leaders, including Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and has even received words of warning from close allies like Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), his point man on Capitol Hill.

Few Republicans have withdrawn their endorsements, however. 

Ford O'Connell, a Republican strategist, warns the left could be overplaying its hand. 

"The best way for Democrats to win is to keep Republicans divided," O'Connell said. "If you tie the top to Trump and slam everyone, they may unite to win."

Ford O'Connell, a Republican strategist, warns the left could be overplaying its hand. 

"The best way for Democrats to win is to keep Republicans divided," O'Connell said. "If you tie the top to Trump and slam everyone, they may unite to win."

Read more from Rafael Bernal at The Hill

With Donald Trump as the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, Democrats see a chance to turn Hispanic voters away from the Republican Party this election — and perhaps for years to come.

They are seizing on every opportunity to fan the flames, with an eye toward winning the White House, taking back the Senate and cutting into the GOP majority in the House.

Surveys indicate Trump has enormous ground to make up with Hispanics as he shifts toward the general election. In a recent poll by America’s Voice and Latino Decisions, 79 percent of Hispanics said they had an unfavorable view of the businessman, who famously launched his campaign talking about Mexico sending criminals into the U.S. 

Ford O'Connell, a Republican strategist, said Democrats know their two largest voting blocs are Hispanics and unmarried female voters, so "they are going to do everything possible between now and the election to show that Trump is risky and dangerous" to those groups.

Split-ticket voting is precisely what the Democrats want to avoid, hoping a strong presidential showing will provide gains in the House and deliver the Senate.

"They are confident Donald Trump is going to go down like the Titanic," said O'Connell, who believes that split tickets are at an all-time low and "candidates running statewide are only going to be able to run within 5 points of Trump and Clinton."

"Whether Trump wins or loses this election, the Republicans have to realize that for long-term viability they have to make inroads with Hispanics," O'Connell said.

Although O'Connell believes Democrats will have the demographic's vote for at least the next two electoral cycles, he said the party risks overreaching.

Read more from Rafael Bernal at The Hill

President Obama is set to take sweeping executive action aimed at protecting some 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation.

The move will satisfy a promise Mr. Obama made to immigrant and Latino groups long clamoring for relief on deportations. But it will also enflame already-high partisan tensions in Washington and color the rest of Mr. Obama’s presidency - as well as the 2016 presidential race.

Obama will make his announcement Thursday in a televised address to the nation at 8 p.m. ET, the president announced in a video posted on WhiteHouse.gov. On Friday, he heads to Nevada – a political battleground state with a big Latino population – to give a speech promoting the move.

Republicans see an effort by Obama to goad them into overreacting, and hurting their party’s image further with Latino voters.

“Obama doesn’t want to be seen as a lame-duck president,” says Republican strategist Ford O’Connell. “He wants to frame this as Republicans being obstructionist, when in fact it’s Obama who is going against the will of the American people.”

Read more from Linda Feldmann at The Christian Science Monitor

After largely avoiding immigration as a wedge issue in competitive races, Republicans are suddenly hitting Democrats for supporting “amnesty.” 

President Obama’s decision earlier this month to delay any executive action on immigration until after the midterms has given national Republicans a new way to tie Democrats to the unpopular president. 

However, some GOP strategists worry the approach risks further alienating the party from Hispanic voters they would need in 2016 to win the White House.

“Short term, it’s an entirely different electoral landscape,” said Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist who advised Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) 2008 presidential bid. “What looks good today might not look good tomorrow.” 

GOP ads on immigration have hit Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Mark Pryor (Ark.) and Mary Landrieu (La.), who all voted for the Senate’s bipartisan reform bill last year. They have also targeted Kentucky Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes and Georgia Democrat Michelle Nunn, who also support a path to citizenship for people in the country illegally. 

The ads are sprinkled with images of President Obama, linking him to the Democratic candidates, and they have the potential to move the needle for the GOP, as they look to capture six seats for Senate control. 

Read more from Peter Sullivan at The Hill

As President Barack Obama considers sidestepping Congress to loosen U.S. immigration policy, a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Americans are deeply worried that illegal immigration is threatening the nation's culture and economy.

Seventy percent of Americans - including 86 percent of Republicans - believe undocumented immigrants threaten traditional U.S. beliefs and customs, according to the poll.

The findings suggest immigration could join Obamacare - the healthcare insurance overhaul - and the economy as hot button issues that encourage more Republicans to vote in November's congressional election.

With Congress failing to agree on broad immigration reforms, Obama could act alone in the next few weeks to give work permits to up to 5 million undocumented immigrants and delay some deportations, according to media reports.

Hispanic and liberal voters would welcome that, but the online survey suggests much of the rest of the nation may not.     

"If President Obama issues a jarring set of executive actions on legalization he could be handing the Senate to the GOP, including putting New Hampshire truly in play," said Republican strategist Ford O'Connell.

Read more from Alistair Bell at Reuters

Republicans say a GOP lawmaker’s comments that Democrats are waging a “war on whites” is just what the party doesn’t need to deal with ahead of the midterm elections. 

With a Senate majority in sight, party strategists say their office holders need to avoid a distracting battle on the polarizing issue of race, which could gin up Democratic voters and turn off independents.

Brooks made the “war on whites” comments during an interview on conservative radio host Laura Ingraham's show, which focused on immigration and the border crisis.

A day later, he doubled down on his accusation in an interviews with USA Today and Newsmax.

GOP strategists said the comments aren’t helpful in the fight to win the Senate. Republicans need to gain six seats to take over the majority, a high bar, but one that appears in reach.

More broadly, strategists say the comments could hurt a party that wants to win back the White House in 2016.

The electorate for the midterms is expected to include a higher proportion of white voters than in a presidential year, which could help Republican candidates. That will be reversed in 2016.

GOP strategist Ford O'Connell said Democrats are likely to use comments like Brooks’s to paint Republicans as intolerant of minorities.

“It may not catch up with Republicans in 2014, but I can bet you that Democrats will use it against them in 2016,” O'Connell said. “It's what I would do.”

Read more from Cristina Marcos at The Hill

Conventional wisdom holds that the Latino vote won’t have much impact on this November’s midterm elections. Indeed, in the battle for control of the Senate – the big question mark of the midterms – almost none of the key states have significant populations of Hispanic voters.

Only in Colorado, where Sen. Mark Udall (D) is fighting for his political life, do Hispanics represent a major portion of the electorate – 15 percent of eligible voters and 10 percent of likely voters, according to a New York Times analysis.

But there’s another way to look at Hispanic outreach in 2014: as a dress rehearsal for 2016, when Hispanics will play a crucial role in the next presidential race. Messages that go out now will not be forgotten when the 2016 cycle starts – essentially, the day after the Nov. 4 midterms.

Last Friday the Republican-led House voted to rescind President Obama’s authority to delay deportation for certain undocumented immigrants, a slap at the so-called “Dreamers” who came to the United States illegally as children and are now able to stay legally and work. The House measure was symbolic, as the Senate had already left town and Mr. Obama had no intention of signing it in any case. But Democrats will use that vote as evidence of what they see as Republican hostility toward Hispanic immigrants.

The recent crisis of child migrants flooding into the United States from Central America has also become a hot-button issue, testing both parties as they seek to energize their base voters for the midterms. But in 2014, the political import is mostly not with Hispanic voters; it’s about how white voters perceive the issue.

“The immigration issue gives Republicans a better chance of consolidating the older, conservative white vote,” says Republican strategist Ford O’Connell. “That’s who is most likely to turn out in the midterms.”

Read more from Linda Feldmann at The Christian Science Monitor

Supporting in-state college tuition for Florida's undocumented immigrants is "politically smart" for Gov. Rick Scott as he tries to hang onto his job against challenger Charlie Crist, Republican strategist Ford O'Connell told Newsmax TV on Wednesday. 

"He's got to tap into the 23 percent of Floridians who are Hispanic, and this is a way to open the door," O'Connell told "America's Forum" host John Bachman and Newsmax contributor Francesca Page.

"It is a little early to say" whether Scott's embrace of a position that plays well with Hispanic voters will, in turn, help Republican presidential candidates in 2016, O'Connell says. But he said that what is "a pragmatic policy" for one state could serve as a model for a GOP White House run.

"The only question is do you actually make the right outreach?" O'Connell said. "And at the end of the day, if Republicans want to win the White House in 2016, they're going to need Hispanics in the tent."

Read more from Sean Piccoli at Newsmax.com