Leave R.N.C.

Hispanic Official to Leave R.N.C. in Sign of Disaffection With Donald Trump

By JONATHAN MARTIN and ALEXANDER BURNS

The head of Hispanic media relations at the Republican National Committee is resigning this month in what appears to be another indication of the lingering discomfort some party officials have about working to elect Donald J. Trump president.

Ruth Guerra, who is of Mexican descent and was in charge of carrying the party’s message to Hispanic voters, is joining the American Action Network, a Republican-aligned “super PAC,” she confirmed in a brief interview on Wednesday.

The American Action Network is expected to spend millions on congressional races, and the new job is in essence a promotion, one co-worker said.

But Ms. Guerra told colleagues this year that she was uncomfortable working for Mr. Trump, according two R.N.C. aides who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the difficulties surrounding the party’s presumptive standard-bearer.

It is relatively rare for party staff members to leave the national committee in the midst of a presidential campaign unless they are going to work directly for the nominee.

Ms. Guerra declined to discuss her feelings about Mr. Trump, who is deeply unpopular with Hispanic voters, but said, “I’ve had a great nearly two years at the R.N.C., and I’m excited for the new opportunities that I will have at A.A.N.”

Ms. Guerra, 28, joins a handful of other R.N.C. aides who have left the party or started looking for new work since Mr. Trump became the party’s presumptive nominee.

Discontent with Mr. Trump runs deep among Republican strategists and staff members, particularly with younger ones. After suggesting that Mexican migrants were drug dealers and rapists upon entering the race last year, Mr. Trump has made illegal immigration a centerpiece of his campaign and at times has veered more directly toward racial demagogy.

Last week in San Diego, a few miles from the Mexican border, he invoked the ethnic heritage of the federal judge presiding over a class-action lawsuit filed by former Trump University students against the developer.

“The judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican,” said Mr. Trump, about Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel, who was born in Indiana to parents of Mexican descent.

In her R.N.C. job, Ms. Guerra, a Texan who speaks fluent Spanish, was a frequent guest on Spanish-language television networks. In her new job, she “will be expanding her role as a conservative voice into congressional districts across America, on both policy and political issues,” said Mike Shields, president of the American Action Network.

In a profile of under-30 young Republicans last year, Ms. Guerra said her party had an opening with a community that has increasingly supported Democrats in recent presidential elections.

“As a Hispanic, I know that we have an opportunity with Hispanics/Latinos — they want to hear from us and want to know that we care,” Ms. Guerra said at the time.