{"id":13414,"date":"2023-08-08T16:11:51","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T16:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13414"},"modified":"2023-08-10T19:12:51","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T19:12:51","slug":"inside-the-push-to-turn-out-latino-voters-in-nevada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13414","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Push to Turn Out Latino Voters in Nevada"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Campaigns and organizations are trying to build a robust Latino voter base in Nevada. Will it work? <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Isabella Grull\u00f3n Paz<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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

On Monday morning, Senator Bernie Sanders\n hosted a soccer tournament at Eldorado High School in East Las Vegas, a\n heavily Latino area. Elotes were served and music was playing, but most\n important were the vans to take players and their families to and from \nearly voting sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That evening, \nSenator Elizabeth Warren appeared with Juli\u00e1n Castro, the former housing\n secretary and presidential candidate, at Cardenas Market for \nPrioridades 2020, a presidential forum hosted by the Latino engagement \ngroup Mi Familia Vota Nevada. Earlier in the day, she\u2019d announced Latinas en La Lucha<\/a>,\n a program designed to highlight the political power of Latinas. A baile\n folkl\u00f3rico Mexicano performance kicked off the night and energized \npeople.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday\u2019s caucuses in Nevada,\n where nearly 30 percent of residents are Latino, will be the first true\n test of whom Latinos are supporting in the 2020 Democratic primary. \nRecent polls have shown Mr. Sanders attracting significant Latino \nsupport in the state, including a Univision poll that found that one-third of Latino Democrats<\/a> who were registered to vote backed him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grass-roots organizations in Nevada and several of the Democratic campaigns have worked particularly hard to engage these voters, and some residents said that they had been contacted by campaigns for the first time in their lives this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alicia Lozano, \n75, moved to Las Vegas four years ago after spending 20 years in El \nPaso. She has voted in numerous elections, but a campaign recently \nreached out to her for the first time ever, when canvassers for Tom \nSteyer knocked on her door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is \nthe first time I\u2019ve ever seen any candidate take an interest in me,\u201d she\n said, adding that a candidate who reached out to her was someone worth \nvoting for, and that she would be supporting Mr. Steyer in the caucuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marco\n Garc\u00eda, 59, who has lived in East Las Vegas for 20 years, also said \nthat this was the first year that campaigns had tried to contact him. \nCanvassers for Mr. Sanders, Ms. Warren and Pete Buttigieg, the former \nmayor of South Bend, Ind., had all stopped by to ask for his support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think Democrats want Latinos to come out and vote because it\u2019s such a close-fought race,\u201d he said. \u201cCampaigns need every little bit of support that they can get, so now they take an interest in us to come out and vote.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advocacy groups like Mi Familia Vota and Make the Road Nevada have hosted their own forums and trainings to inspire Latinos, who typically turn out at lower rates than other people of color<\/a>, to caucus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve found that\n when we educate Latinos, they\u2019re more civically engaged than most \nvoting groups,\u201d said H\u00e9ctor S\u00e1nchez Barba, the executive director of Mi \nFamilia Vota. \u201cThis is an investment in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These groups are also trying to make the case to campaigns and outsiders that engaging Latino voters is worth the effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Latino Vote Project<\/a>,\n a turnout analysis conducted by the polling firm Latino Decisions and \nother groups, found last year that Latinos had been crucial to turning \nelections in four states \u2014 Arizona, Florida, Nevada and Texas \u2014 that \nwere competitive for Democrats in the 2018 midterms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n same study found that the largest increases in voter turnout in these \nstates were in predominantly Latino precincts, thanks largely to \ngrass-roots organizations\u2019 spending millions of dollars on civic \nengagement and outreach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Nevada, these groups have mostly reached out to Latinos who are not traditionally targeted by campaigns or political parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make the Road came to Ruth Mantilla\u2019s door 11 months ago as part of the group\u2019s effort to contact so-called low-propensity voters, or people who were considered unlikely to vote. Ms. Mantilla has lived in Las Vegas for a decade but only recently became a citizen, and this is the first primary that she will be able to vote in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBefore,\n when I didn\u2019t have the chance to vote, I never really realized if \ncandidates were getting involved in our communities, but this year I \nhave seen that the Democratic Party is trying to get us to me more \nengaged to change our current government,\u201d she said, adding that she \nfelt a sense of urgency around getting President Trump out of office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Natalia\n Salgado, the national political director and chief of civic engagement \nfor the Center for Popular Democracy, said recent organizing efforts had\n been driven by a desire for a party that Latinos could trust and work \nwith. (Make the Road Nevada is a local partner of the Center for Popular\n Democracy.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the Democratic Party \nwas going to be the electoral vehicle, either we were going to have to \nrevamp it or we\u2019re going to have to create something new,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\n didn\u2019t like how the party would sometimes parachute into Latino \ncommunities and tell voters which candidates to back no matter what, \nincluding some who backed policies and agendas that wouldn\u2019t improve \nLatinos\u2019 quality of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe \nthat long-term organization and human-to-human relationships are the \ncornerstones of being able to undo all the sort of damage that the \nDemocratic Party has done,\u201d Ms. Salgado said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Mi Familia Vota, that often means an emphasis on families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re\n never forgetting the youth, because we feel like if we are able to \ntarget them and they are being informed about it, they can also inform \ntheir families and their parents,\u201d said Alma Delia Romo, the group\u2019s \nstate coordinator in Nevada. \u201cGetting students involved is very \nimportant because they\u2019re going to shape our future representation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Ms. Romo said that the key to getting Latinos, especially young ones, involved was showing them how accessible voting can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing\n able to have these spaces like Cardenas, like the East Las Vegas \nLibrary \u2014 places they are familiar with and can go vote \u2014 definitely \nmakes an impact,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added \nthat this year\u2019s addition of early voting made turning out easier for \nLatinos, who might not have the time to caucus on a Saturday because of \nwork or family obligations. More than 70,000 Nevadans participated in \nearly voting, the state Democratic Party said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many\n early voting sites were located on the Strip, at hotels and casinos, to\n make them accessible for workers. Such locations will be open on caucus\n night as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt feels like we\u2019re being supported by someone other than ourselves, and that\u2019s important,\u201d Ms. Romo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Isabella Grull\u00f3n Paz is the Political News Assistant at NY Times. @igrullonpaz<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Campaigns and organizations are trying to build a robust Latino voter base in Nevada. Will it work? by Isabella Grullón Paz On Monday morning, Senator Bernie Sanders hosted a soccer tournament at Eldorado High School […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[81],"class_list":{"0":"post-13414","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\/13414","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=13414"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13848,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13414\/revisions\/13848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}