by B. Adriana Venegas-Chavez

Now that Hillary Rodham Clinton has dropped out of the presidential race, Republican nominee John McCain is in a good position to secure a significant portion of the coveted Latino voting bloc. Most of Clinton's liberal Latino supporters have switched over to presidential nominee Barack Obama, and more conservative Latinos, many of whom did not agree with McCain's liberal conservatism, were simply going to stay home in November, as USA Today reports. That's until McCain chose Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate.

Alaska Governor Palin is a conservative evangelical who adamantly opposes abortion and gay marriage, as the Boston Globe tells us. Two stances that the Latino evangelical population fervently supports.

In an interview with Dallas Morning News editorial columnist William McKenzie, Rev. Mark Gonzales, who chairs McCain's national Hispanic advisory council for Hispanic evangelicals, said, "Even though [Palin is] not Hispanic, or from the part of the country where many Latinos live, she resonates with her everyday life story and her values.

She's pro-life and pro-family, and that's what connects her to Latinos." Gonzales continues, "Family issues resonate no matter where you are. She's going through a tough situation at the moment, and this will bring out compassion for her. There's a struggle going on as well in Hispanic families, often because of immigration."

According to a Pew Research poll, "Latinos, who now comprise about 6 percent of the overall evangelical Protestant population in the U.S., are similar in many ways to their white evangelical counterparts when it comes to religious beliefs and practices." The difference is that Latino Evangelicals tend to be even more conservative than white evangelicals. For instance, 86 percent oppose gay marriage, compared with 79 percent of white evangelicals. And 77 percent of Latino evangelicals think abortion should be illegal, compared to 61 percent of their white counterparts. In terms of mixing religion and politics, 62 percent say their religion influences their political decision.

That was clear in 2004, when 56 percent of Latino evangelicals voted for George W. Bush, up from 44 percent in 2000, according to a Pew Hispanic poll.

Despite the Republican Party's lack of popularity among Latinos in general, and even though some are still deciding whom to vote for--Latino evangelical Richard Ramos, who voted twice for Bush, told Newsweek, "It's a really tough decision for me"--conservative Latino evangelical leaders are quickly mobilizing their followers to support McCain and Palin.

Rev. Luis Lopez, Assemblies of God Pastor, Chairman of the Florida Hispanic Clergy Association and CONLAMIC Vice-President, said,  "Gov. Sarah Palin is a successful and talented politician. What matters most to us, is that Sister Palin acknowledges God in her life and her personal testimony affirms her true values and assurance of a strong Woman of Faith."

What's most important about conservative Latino evangelicals is that they can be the deciding factor in states that will likely decide the 2008 election. As Reuters reports, the "numbers are concentrated in key swing states that could go either way in November like Colorado, New Mexico and Florida. So in a close election they could be a key vote in both battleground states and battleground faiths."

Amid all the criticism McCain has received in choosing Sarah Palin as his partner, this should be very good news for the Republican ticket. But will conservative social values or progressive immigration reform ultimately sway Latino evangelical voters? Stay tuned!

B. Adriana Venegas-Chavez is an M.A. candidate in the print journalism program at the University of Southern California.