Perry plans campaign stop in Orange County on Thursday

SIMI VALLEY, CA. -- After appearing in his first presidential debate Wednesday night, Texas Gov. Rick Perry will head to Corona Del Mar, Calif., on the other side of Los Angeles, to meet members of the Orange County Republican Party. His campaign announced the stop Wednesday, just hours before the debate.

While Perry has six other fundraisers planned up and down the California coast Thursday and Friday, the Orange County will present an opportunity to tap into the state's many Hispanic voters. More than half of Orange County's 1.9 million residents identify as Hispanic or Latino, according to 2010 Census figures.

President Obama has tried to appeal to Latinos by calling for passage of immigration reform and the DREAM Act, a bill that would give young people brought here illegally as children a chance at citizenship. But after 10 years as governor of a state that is almost 40 percent Hispanic, Perry also has a record of reaching out to the nation's fastest-growing voting bloc.

In 2001, Perry signed the Texas DREAM Act, which provides in-state tuition rates to the children of illegal immigrants. In another departure from Republican orthodoxy, he also opposes construction of a border fence, arguing that it would be impractical.

As the Hispanic population in the U.S. continues to grow, it has become an important demographic for presidential candidates. In 2008, Mr. Obama captured 67 percent of the population's vote to Sen. John McCain's 31 percent.