Early voting has indicated huge spikes in Hispanic voters from 2012. While the general rise in numbers doesn’t guarantee that all of these votes will go for Hillary Clinton, the campaign rhetoric does.

Donald Trump has struggled with wooing Hispanic Voters, instead he seems hell bent on insulting everyone in his path. After the initial push for “building a wall” to keep out what Trump called “rapists” and criminals, he back pedaled to a “virtual wall” but as the campaign is ending, he is back to referring to Hispanics as “Bad Hombres” a sad attempt at humor or just exceptionally bad Spanglish.  Either way Donald Trump has pushed the boundaries of what has become “acceptable” on the campaign trail.

His repeated promise to bring more people to the GOP, seems to be just like all his other promises, empty and set in a parallel universe.  The latest numbers from South Florida suggest that over 200,000 more early votes were cast, by Hispanic voters than just four years ago.

According to the New York Times, this is not just a trend in Florida:

Hispanic turnout also soared during the early voting period in Arizona, which has voted for a Democrat for president only once since 1952 and where Mrs. Clinton’s campaign made a late push with television advertising and rallies to snatch the state from the Republicans. The Latino share of the early vote was 3 percent higher in Arizona than what it was four years ago, according to an analysis by Catalist, a Democratic data firm.

The same study found that as of the end of early voting on Thursday, five states with surging Hispanic populations — Arizona, Colorado, Florida, North Carolina and Nevada — had already cast ballots equivalent to over 50 percent of their total turnout from 2012.

It is only fair to state that Hispanics are also the fasting growing demographic, so raw numbers are bound to increase.  Having said that it’s hard to deny that attacks on Hispanic people and their culture may have awakened a sleeping giant voting block at just the right time for Hillary Clinton.

Republicans have counted on the support of a significant block of Hispanic votes, specifically those with Cuban heritage, but with his treatment of Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz it’s impossible to believe they will be reliable for the GOP candidate this year.

Both parties are struggling to bring in the Black vote this year, as neither Clinton nor Trump have the draw of Barack Obama himself.   The President has been attempting to fire up his voters to show up for Hillary, we shall see if it works.  Hillary Clinton to her credit has reached out through pop culture icons, Jennifer Lopez and her ex-husband Marc Anthony to the Latino community with joint appearances in Florida.  Clinton was even able to secure Beyonce and Jay Z for a campaign event, hoping for a final push with non-white voters.  Some may scoff at these tactics, but Trump in the same time frame has done nothing even remotely close to voter outreach of any kind.

No candidate can afford to take any vote for granted, let alone the votes of millions of Americans. Trump’s derogatory comments towards Hispanics, may just give Hillary Clinton the edge she needs in tight races.