{"id":13364,"date":"2023-08-08T15:38:45","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T15:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13364"},"modified":"2023-08-10T19:25:24","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T19:25:24","slug":"an-important-breakthrough-for-hispanic-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13364","title":{"rendered":"An important breakthrough for Hispanic voters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Jennifer Rubin<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Before 2018, it was conventional wisdom in polling and political circles that Hispanic voters were less likely to register and less likely to turn out to vote than white and African American voters. Something changed in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reinforcing findings from a study from UCLA<\/a>, Univision researchers found<\/a>\n that, among Hispanic voters, there were \u201cacross the board voter \nregistration and turnout increases in the key primary and general \nelection states of Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, New Mexico, North \nCarolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania.\u201d There were extremely significant, \nespecially since this particular study did not include California, \nFlorida and Texas, which were the subject of the UCLA study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The numbers are quite remarkable, especially given this was not a presidential election. \u201cIn Arizona nearly 3 in 10<\/strong> new registered voters were Hispanic. In Colorado 1 in 5<\/strong> new registered voters were Hispanic. In New Mexico nearly half<\/strong> of all new registered voters were Hispanic. In North Carolina the number of Hispanic registered voters grew +28%<\/strong> while Non-Hispanics declined -4%.\u201d (Emphasis in the original.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study also included these data points:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Hispanic voters delivered reliable and consequential \nincreases in voter participation on average almost doubling turnout \nacross these 7 key states<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Independent\/Other Hispanic voters were especially energized to go the\n polls, more than doubling turnout in these states on average<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growth in the number of Hispanic voters aged 18-24 tripled on average across AZ, CO, GA, NM, NC, OH, and PA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growth in the number of Hispanic voters aged 25-34 nearly doubled on average across these states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Must-win Super Tuesday states Colorado and Georgia in addition to \nearly state Ohio saw growth in Hispanic 18-24 voters more than triple \nand nearly double among the 25-34 demographic.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As one might expect, due to greater interest, registration and \nturnout among Hispanic voters, there was a 67 percent increase in ads \ntargeting Hispanic voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hispanic voters made up 11 percent<\/a> of the electorate in 2018, about equal to the percentage of African American voters. In 2014, Hispanics made up 8 percent<\/a> of the electorate. In 2018, Democrats captured 69 percent<\/a> of the Hispanic vote (73 percent of Hispanic women), compared with 90 percent of blacks and 44 percent of whites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A separate study from the Pew Research Center <\/a>told\n us more about Hispanic voters: \u201cAbout a quarter of Hispanics who cast a\n ballot in 2018 (27%) said they were voting in a midterm for the first \ntime, compared with 18% of black voters and 12% of white voters, \naccording to the exit polls. Meanwhile, many new voters this year were \nyoung. A majority of voters younger than 30 said they were voting in a \nmidterm for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In key Senate and House races, the winning Democrat got significant \nhelp from Hispanic voters. Take Nevada for example: \u201cAbout 67% of \nLatinos voted for Democrat Jacky Rosen in the Senate race, compared with\n 30% who voted for Republican Dean Heller. In the race for governor, \nLatinos voted in a similar manner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it is true that health care and the economy are important to \nHispanics, just as they are to other groups, polling last year showed \nrising concern in the Trump era about their place in society. \u201cHalf of \nLatinos say their situation in the U.S. has worsened over the past year,\n up from 32% in the weeks after Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential \nelection and the highest level since the Great Recession,\u201d Pew reported<\/a>.\n Immigration is certainly part of the reason. \u201cIn addition, more say \nthey have serious concerns about their place in American society now \n(49%) than in 2017 (41%). And a majority (55%) say they are worried that\n they, a family member or close friend could be deported.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Trump era, it is not simply immigration policy that troubles Hispanics \u2014 it is flat-out racism:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Nearly four-in-ten Hispanics say they have experienced at\n least one of four offensive incidents in the past year because of their\n Hispanic background, although about as many note that someone has \nexpressed support for them because they are Hispanic. For the 38% of \nHispanics who say they have experienced an incident, these comprise: \nexperiencing discrimination or unfair treatment because of their \nHispanic background, being criticized for speaking Spanish in public, \nbeing told to go back to their home country, or being called offensive \nnames. Immigrant Hispanics are more likely than U.S.-born Hispanics to \nreport they have experienced most of these incidents.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This is consistent with FBI data showing an uptick in hate crimes in the Trump era. (In California,<\/a>\n for example, despite a slight decline in the overall number of hate \ncrimes reported statewide, hate crimes against Hispanics increased 18 \npercent in 2018.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democrats would be wise to engage with Hispanic voters, particularly those who may have voted for the first time in 2018. While the overwhelming majority of Hispanics favor Democrats, President Trump, it seems, has increased their anxiety and prompted them to become more politically active. Democrats no doubt will reinforce the theme that Trump seeks to divide the country by race, marginalize non-whites and operate an inhumane immigration system. The evidence for this is and will continue to be plentiful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jennifer Rubin<\/a> is an opinion writer covering politics and policy for the Washington Post.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Jennifer Rubin Before 2018, it was conventional wisdom in polling and political circles that Hispanic voters were less likely to register and less likely to turn out to vote than white and African American […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[81],"class_list":{"0":"post-13364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latino-vote","8":"tag-latino-vote"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13364"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13867,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13364\/revisions\/13867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}