Zero GOP Sens plan to attend Hispanic conference

John Hawkins over at Right Wing News has this stunner: No Republican senators are planning to attend the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s 19th Annual Legislative Conference next week in D.C.

Hawkins writes:

Here’s the kicker: supposedly, the Democrats have 20 senators scheduled to attend various events and receptions. The Republicans? Are you ready for this? They have no senators currently scheduled to attend. Zero. Nada. Zilch.

I called Dale Crowell, who handles press inquiries for the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s 19th Annual Legislative Conference. He confirmed for me that there are currently no Republican senators scheduled to attend the event and that Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart are the only two Republican Congressmen he had scheduled. He told me that they’d really love to have more Republicans attending and he also noted that there are a “considerable number” of Democrats scheduled to attend.

Hawkins notes that this might not be the wisest strategy for Republicans, who are already losing Hispanic voters to Democrats at a significant rate. And then there’s the fact that Hispanics are a rapidly growing population and will likely be a majority in some states in the not so distant future.

Is this for real? If anyone knows of any Republican senators attending conference please either email me or write in the comments section below.

jeremy.jacobs@digital-stage.thehill.com