Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida might represent the future of the Republican Party, but in his Spanish-language response to Obama's State of the Union, don't expect to hear anything different from what the GOP has said before.
He's giving the exact same speech as brand new Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa. As pointed out in Mother Jones, while Ernst supports making English the official language of the U.S., Curbelo's been far more progressive on issues like immigration. That isn't expected to be on display Tuesday, however. Curbelo's address is simply the GOP's SOTU reaction packaged for an audience the GOP's struggled to connect with in the past.
This isn't the first time the GOP's response to the State of the Union has been delivered in English and Spanish. In 2014, Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington delivered the official response and then Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida delivered a nearly identical speech in Spanish tailored with her own touches. In 2013, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida delivered his speech in both English and Spanish.
The speech reaction this year, however, is symptomatic of a party that believes its woes with Latino voters have more to do with messaging and outreach than the fundamental policies they promote. While Republicans are working to undo Obama's executive action on immigration, the party is trying to reach out to Hispanic voters.