Why Conservatives Should Care About Puerto Rican Statehood

Why Conservatives Should Care About Puerto Rican Statehood

October 15, 2014 | Paul Dupont
Photo credit: Joe Shlabotnik via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
On February 11, 1980, the Republican nominee for president, Ronald Reagan, took to the pagesof The Wall Street Journal to renew his commitment to statehood for Puerto Rico if its citizens desired it.  He argued, “We cannot expect our foreign policies to be enjoying prestige around the world – attracting support instead of collapsing – when we are having serious problems with our closest neighbors.”

Thirty-two years later, the citizens of Puerto Rico made their voices heard.  In the plebiscite of November 2012, a majority of Puerto Rican voters rejected their current territorial status, and over 61 percent voted that they would prefer the island become a state.  However, Congress has thus far ignored these results, failing to act on its Constitutional authority to admit new states into the union.

As Reagan alluded to in his op-ed, Puerto Rico’s status quo runs contrary to the principles our nation professes to uphold.  America claims to support democracy and self-determination abroad, and yet the U.S. continues to hold as a territory an island of over three million people.  Puerto Ricans are United States citizens, subject to federal laws, and serve in the armed forces defending our country; yet they cannot vote in federal elections and do not have a voting representative in Congress.

Despite this unacceptable situation, some conservatives have argued against Puerto Rican statehood since it would mean admitting to the U.S. another Democratic Party stronghold.  Besides the fact that this does not override the rights of Puerto Ricans, however, it is far from clear that Puerto Ricans are necessarily Democrats.  Although polling on the island has been scarce, a recent survey by Consumer Research of Floridian Puerto Ricans included some interesting findings:

Both by registration and by reported usual voting respondents reported being Democrats by large margins. Specifically: 55% report registering as Democrats, compared to only 19% who register as Republicans. […]

However, when we asked respondents about their ideology we found they were quite conservative. Unlike most Democrats, most I-4 Puerto Ricans reported they were conservatives (48%), rather than liberals (17%); the remainder (29%) considered themselves moderates. While respondents who report registering as Republicans are substantially more conservative than their Democratic counter-parts, a very significant proportion of the registered Democrats (43%) in our sample also said they were conservatives.
Furthermore, when the Puerto Ricans surveyed were asked how likely, on a scale of 1-10, they would be to vote for a candidate who was pro-life, supported parental notification laws, and supported prayer in public schools, the responses averaged 8.1, 8.4, and 8.8, respectively.  So while these Puerto Ricans tend to vote Democrat, based on their political stances, this should not be seen as irreversible.

Additionally, the survey also found high support for Puerto Rican statehood.  64 percent of the Puerto Ricans polled preferred statehood as the best option to resolve Puerto Rico’s current status, and the likelihood of those surveyed to vote for a candidate supporting statehood averaged 8.1.  With Puerto Ricans being such a key voting constituency in a swing state like Florida, it is somewhat surprising that Puerto Rico’s statehood has not become a significant campaign issue to date.

Regardless of personal interests, however, conservatives ought to support Puerto Rican statehood on principle.  The citizens of Puerto Rico have spoken loudly and clearly in favor of ending the island’s territorial status and being admitted to the U.S. as a new state, and it is now the responsibility of Congress to act on this statement.  Continuing to ignore it would be a dereliction of duty and a serious betrayal of America’s founding principles.