It's no secret that republicans have been grappling with ways to draw in Latino voters after winning just 27 percent of the Hispanic vote last election. In fact, only one in ten republican votes last election was cast by a non-white American, according to the Huffington Post. To accommodate for the disparity, the party claimed that they would not change their policies, but rather choose more inclusive words and rhetoric to attract minority voters.
Apparently, Rep. Don Young didn't get the memo, referring to a group of Hispanic workers at his childhood farm as "wetbacks."
"I used to own - my father had a ranch. We used to hire 50 to 60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes. You know it takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It's all done by machine," said the Alaskan representative in an interview with KRBD earlier this week.
After a slew of backlash, Young released a statement claiming that he was raised in a different time and meant no harm by the comments, saying,“I used a term that was commonly used during my days growing up on a farm in central California. I know that this term is not used in the same way nowadays."
