Who we are
The Republican National Hispanic Assembly of Georgia is an organization of concerned citizens who are inspired by the need to curtail excessive government growth, spending, taxation and regulation. Our mission is to mobilize, organize and educate our fellow residents on Local, County and State Government and to influence public policy consistent with three core values of Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutionally Limited Government and Free Markets.Where It All Began
The Republican National Hispanic Assembly is an American political organization founded in 1967 which seeks to promote Hispanic-American issues and interests within the Republican Party, and the Party’s interests and candidates within the Hispanic-American population. The group is partially an outgrowth of the Spanish Speaking Advisory Committee of the Republican National Committee, which itself was created as a response to successful efforts to attract Hispanic-American voters to the presidential candidacy of Richard Nixon.
RNHA Formation:
In 1967, an informal meeting was held in Washington D.C by thirteen Hispanic-American men. As one participant, Francisco Vega, later recalled: “… the meeting came about by word of mouth… we were from Florida, California, Texas, New Jersey, Michigan, and several other states….” The purpose of the gathering was to discuss how they could increase Hispanic political involvement.
Although all of men intimated some kind of affiliation with the Democrats, none of them felt especially attached to any political party. Having had their offers to organize some kind of Hispanic outreach rebuffed by both the Democratic and Republican Party’s national offices, the dejected group returned to their hotel. Eventually, the gathering dwindled down to five: Ben Fernandez, Manuel Lujan, Fernando Oaxaca, Martin Castillo, and Vega. These last attendees continued to talk, bonded over their common World War II service and political ideologies, and, eventually, formed the Republican National Hispanic Council. Fernandez was selected as its first president.
The next year, the name of the organization was changed to the Republican National Hispanic Assembly with Fernandez taking up the title of National Chairman. Without formal acknowledgment from the Republican Party, the group immediately began to organize chapters in their home and surrounding states. They also managed to raise more than $400,000 by the end of 1968 which they presented to astonished Party officials. Relations between the two political entities soon warmed considerably.
RNC Affiliation:
President Ford with Raul Espinoza, RNHA’s first executive director, at the 1976 banquet As part of its 1972 re-election campaign strategy, the Nixon Administration sought to increase Hispanic electoral participation. In addition to others, key RNHA personnel were tapped to assist in this endeavor and the Spanish Speaking Committee for the Re-Election of President Nixon was formed. This committee has been credited an integral role in garnering more than 35% of the Hispanic vote for the President- a vast improvement over the previous three election cycles where the Republican candidate averaged only 10%. Additionally, Fernandez and Vega occupied several important positions within Nixon’s re-election campaign, in particular, the Hispanic Finance Committee.
Chaired by Fernandez, the HFC raised over $250,000 for the President in 1972. Later that year, newly appointed RNC chairman George H. W. Bush began to lay the groundwork for a more permanent organization to woo and retain Hispanic voters. In April, 1973, Bush authorized the formation of the Spanish Speaking Advisory Committee; Castillo became its national chairman. In meetings held with the SSAC in Crystal City, Virginia from July 11 to July 13, 1974, the RNHA was formally recognized and chartered by the RNC (it is also from this point that the RNHA dates its existence for organizational purposes). Since that time, it has been the only Hispanic Republican group officially affiliated with the national Republican Party.
The RNHA began increasing their public profile by holding Annual Banquets starting in 1976. President Gerald Ford delivered the keynote address at the first such event on July 29. At that time, Oaxaca was serving as an Associate Director in the Office of Management and Budget. A “Hispanic Heritage Leadership Breakfast” series was added in 1995. Later, Bettina Inclan, was hired to revitalize the group’s image. Nevertheless, attempts at increasing Hispanic participation at the highest levels of the RNC were stymied in 2009.
The leaders of several prominent Republican and Republican-leaning Hispanic organizations- including the RNHA- complained in a March 6 letter to RNC chairman Michael Steele of the situation. Despite assurances in a follow-up meeting, RNHA’s Vargas and others would report that no movement had taken place as of a few months later. Hispanic leaders also decried the state of Hispanics in the Party at an RNHA conference entitled “Future of Hispanics in the GOP.” Citing the debate over- and the Party’s stance on- immigration as the single most important issue driving away potential voters, Vargas stated: “We know that the party will not recover its majority until we get this right.”
Our Mission Statement
The Republican National Hispanic Assembly of Georgia supports individual rights, limited government and free enterprise. We believe every human being is endowed by God with inherent rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
We support a strict construction of the Bill of Rights as a defense against tyranny; the expansion of those rights to all voluntary consensual conduct under the Ninth and Tenth Amendments; and the requirements of equal protection and due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.
We support the Constitutional restrictions on federal government powers enumerated in Article I, Section 8 as an absolute limit on all government functions and programs.
We oppose the adoption of broad and vague powers under the guise of general welfare or interstate commerce.
We oppose all restrictions on the voluntary and honest exchange of value in a free market. We favor minimal, equitable, and fair taxation for the essential functions of government. We oppose all legislation that concedes Congressional power to any regulatory agency, executive department, or international body.
We support the Constitution as the supreme law of the land, the republican form of government it requires, and the right of all citizens to fair and equitable representation.
We believe these are also the proper positions of the Republican Party.
Our Core Values
Fiscal Responsibility Limited Government Free Markets
We support fiscal responsibility through reasonable spending, balanced budgets and reduced debt at the federal, state and local levels. Assuring that government honors and respects the freedom of the individual to earn and spend the money that is the fruit of their own labor. Deficit spending as now practiced in Washington D.C. compels us to take action as the increasing national debt is a grave threat to our national sovereignty and the personal and economic liberty of our children.
We support a constitutionally limited government of the people, by the people and for the people to protect the personal liberty of the individual, within the rule of law. We believe in the original intent of our founders and reject the flagrant disregard of the Constitution as practiced in the courts. We support states’ rights for those powers not expressly stated in the Constitution. We are inspired by our founding documents and regard the Constitution of the United States to be the supreme law of the land.
A free market economy is the foundation of the country and its people. Government’s interference distorts the free market and inhibits the pursuit of individual and growth. Therefore, we support free market principles on which this nation was founded and oppose government intervention into the operations of private business through unfounded rules and regulation.
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