ABC and CNN political contributor Ana Navarro said that GOP presidential hopeful Jeb Bush would be great for the Hispanic community because he speaks the language and is married to a Mexican woman. By focusing on his superficial links to the Hispanic community, she ignored Bush's policy stances that are unfavorable to Latinos.

On June 15, Jeb Bush announced that he is running for the nomination to be the Republican candidate in the 2016 presidential race.

During a discussion of Bush's candidacy on CNN en Español's Directo USA, Navarro said that Bush would benefit the Latino community because he is “an honorary Hispanic” (emphasis added):

NAVARRO: Yes, look, I think it's a great benefit for the Latino community because we'll have Republicans this time that represent this country's diversity and understand our culture, our idiosyncrasy. Marco Rubio, of course, is the son of exiled Cubans, is a Cuban-American, and Jeb Bush is an honorary Hispanic, since a young age he was in Mexico, married a Mexican woman, Columba Bush, whom he's been with for more than 40 years, and has been since 1980, same year of the Mariel exodus, same year many Nicaraguans like myself came to Miami, living in Miami.  And you know Juan Carlos that living in Miami is almost like living in Latin America, I think it's the closest, the place in the US that's mostly like it, that's why he has great sensitivity, greatest knowledge, has the understanding he has for immigrants, for the diverse Hispanic communities. He understands the differences between Colombians and Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Nicaraguans, knows the language, knows our jokes, so we think he's really good for the Hispanic community, because definitely, in this occasion we'll have people inside the Republican Party advocating for the interests of the Hispanic community. [Translated from CNN en Español, Directo USA, 6/15/2015]

Navarro's praise of Bush's bilingual and biracial marriage ignored Bush's policy stances that are out-of-line with Latino voters. According to Latino Decisions, Bush's policy stances in five major policy areas (Obama's executive orders on immigration, the Affordable Care Act, minimum wage, climate change, and taxes) are at odds with Latino voters. And the report noted that “Latino voters have proven more than willing to reject even actual Latinos as candidates when their policy positions are in contrast to the community preferences.” Jeb Bush was also criticized by Florida State Senator Darren Soto (D) who wrote an op-ed titled “Jeb Bush Is Not Our Friend,” for not doing enough to help Hispanic women gain equal pay when he was governor of the state.

Navarro isn't alone. Latino media outlets also ignored Bush's policy positions when he announced that he was creating an exploratory committee in March, instead opting to focus on his marriage and his Spanish language fluency.    

John F. Burnett contributed to this report.