{"id":13417,"date":"2023-08-08T16:13:35","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T16:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13417"},"modified":"2023-08-10T19:12:18","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T19:12:18","slug":"latino-impact-on-colorados-2020-elections-depends-on-turnout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13417","title":{"rendered":"Latino impact on Colorado\u2019s 2020 elections depends on turnout"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Just more than half of the state\u2019s eligible Latino voters are registered to vote.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by John Aguilar<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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

Colorado\u2019s Latino voters, long a growing force on the state\u2019s \nelectoral map, are poised to have an even larger impact on the 2020 \nelection \u2014 if more of them vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Pew Research Center<\/a>, there are 659,000 eligible Latino voters in Colorado out of a total Latino population of 1.2 million. But barely more than half \u2014 57% \u2014 of those eligible voters are actually registered to vote, recent polling from the University of Denver\u2019s Latino Leadership Institute<\/a> shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an untapped population,\u201d said Celeste Montoya, an associate \nprofessor of women and gender studies at the University of Colorado at \nBoulder who specializes in political science. \u201cIt\u2019s a population to \nwatch, but it\u2019s also a population that has not been fully mobilized.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s a shortcoming of Colorado\u2019s major political parties, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cColorado is one of the easiest states to register in, and because \nthere is such a low level of participation, that says the parties are \nnot doing their jobs,\u201d Montoya said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colorado\u2019s presidential primary is March 3<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On paper at least, the advantage of harvesting those silent votes is clearly on the Democrats\u2019 side. An election eve poll conducted by Latino Decisions<\/a>,\n a Seattle-based opinion research firm, in 2016 showed President Donald \nTrump garnering a mere 16% of the Latino vote in Colorado. Nationally, \nthe president received 28% of the Latino vote in the election, according\n to Pew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that partisan ratio were extrapolated across all eligible Latinos \ncurrently sitting out Colorado\u2019s elections, more than 200,000 additional\n votes could fall into the Democratic column this year. Not only would \nthat be bad for Trump, it would be unwelcome news for Republican Cory \nGardner, who is in an epic struggle to retain his U.S. Senate seat<\/a> in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just last week, Gardner tied himself closely to the president when he told a crowd of thousands that Trump has \u201cdone so much good for Colorado\u201d during a rally with the president in Colorado Springs<\/a>. Trump has faced harsh criticism for his immigration policies, be it separation of children from their parents at the border or his characterization of some Mexicans as \u201crapists\u201d during his campaign debut in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think Cory Gardner can pull it out, because he doesn\u2019t have \nthe Latinos,\u201d said Mannie Rodriguez, chairman of the Colorado Democratic\n Latino Initiative. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have the Latino vote, you can\u2019t win.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a challenge that won\u2019t go unanswered, said Hugo Chavez-Rey, \nchairman of the Colorado Hispanic Republicans. He said he\u2019s hearing from\n more and more Latinos \u2014 \u201cthe younger crowd, middle-aged folks and older\n folks\u201d \u2014 who feel that the Democratic Party has moved too far to the \nleft in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are some Latinos who don\u2019t think they are being served by the \nDemocratic Party anymore,\u201d he said. \u201cThey say that this is not the \nDemocratic Party it used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether it\u2019s Colorado\u2019s sex education bill that went into effect last year<\/a> or the legislature\u2019s Democratic-led effort to kill bills restricting abortion<\/a>,\n Chavez-Rey said many Hispanics in the state \u2014 especially those who are \nreligious \u2014 are concerned with the direction of the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe faith community has been mobilized,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition\u2019s Victor Galv\u00e1n Ramirez said it \nis at the candidates\u2019 peril that they overlook the fast-growing \ndemographic, which now accounts for one of every five Coloradans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCandidates cannot ignore that this is an important voter bloc \u2014 \nwhether Democrats or Republicans,\u201d said Ramirez, who serves as the \ncoalition\u2019s director of federal campaigns and civic engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paula Arroyo, gathered with friends at Stoney\u2019s Bar & Grill in \nDenver to watch a Democratic presidential debate this month, said she \nsupports Sen. Elizabeth Warren as the Democratic nominee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a very smart, experienced woman who has the ability to make \nchange because she has done it,\u201d said Arroyo, wearing a Latinas With \nWarren T-shirt as multiple TVs in the bar blared the debate. \u201cShe\u2019s a \ncoalition builder and she works both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 69-year-old former education administrator, who has been \ncanvassing Denver\u2019s Latino-heavy Elyria-Swansea neighborhood on behalf \nof Warren, was also there to see former presidential candidate Juli\u00e1n \nCastro speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Castro, who served as President Barack Obama\u2019s secretary of Housing and Urban Development, has been stumping for Warren since he ended his own bid for the White House in January<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s speaking very powerfully to the issues so many Latinos care \nthe most about, like education, health care and immigration, as well as \nsmall business entrepreneurship,\u201d Castro said during a sit-down \ninterview in the back of Stoney\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The San Antonio native, who was the sole Latino candidate in the \nDemocratic contest for president, said Warren \u201chas some work to do,\u201d \ngiven polling showing that rival Bernie Sanders does well with \nHispanics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vermont senator also has the backing of progressive icon U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t take the Latino community for granted \u2014 we can\u2019t assume they\u2019re going to turn out,\u201d Castro said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Montoya, the CU professor, said Castro\u2019s presence on the campaign \ntrail will only help Warren better connect with Latino communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s educating her and he\u2019s helping push her on issues that \nshe was already moving on,\u201d she said. \u201cIs it going to give her an edge \nagainst Sanders? That has yet to be seen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One hopeful sign for Warren, Montoya said, is a poll of registered Latino voters taken in mid-February by Univision Noticias<\/a> that shows the Massachusetts senator edging out Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden in a head-to-head matchup with Trump \u2014 though not by much. Biden is the only major candidate still in the race who hasn\u2019t held a public event in Colorado in this election cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFriend to the Latino community\u201d<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The president doesn\u2019t need a majority of the Latino vote to get \nre-elected, said state Rep. Dave Williams, a Republican of Mexican \nheritage who represents Colorado Springs \u2014 \u201che just needs a sizable \nportion of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s extremely important for any candidate to go after these\n voters and show them how you can make their lives better,\u201d he said. \n\u201cIt\u2019s extremely important for Republicans to show that we\u2019re a friend to\n the Latino community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Williams said there is plenty of bandwidth beyond Trump\u2019s \ncontroversial positions on immigration to connect with Hispanics in \nColorado. As support for that hypothesis, the February Univision poll<\/a> asked registered Latino voters the most important issues they would like to see a president address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lowering health care costs was the top issue at 25%, followed by \nhigher incomes at 19%. Protecting immigration rights was listed as the \ntop concern by 11% of respondents, while border security was the No. 1 \nconcern among 12% of poll respondents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, Latinos want to make sure there\u2019s a good economy and good access to health care and education,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramirez, with the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, acknowledges \nthat \u201cthe Latino bloc is not a monolith and older Latinos are more \nconservative\u201d \u2014 but he insists that immigration remains the most salient\n topic among those he speaks to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gardner\u2019s focus<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As for Gardner, Williams said his chief focus in his Senate campaign needs to be on issues other than immigration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s right there with the president on growing the economy and \nimproving education and he should highlight those things,\u201d Williams \nsaid. \u201cIt\u2019s the economy, stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Montoya said either party can build bridges to Hispanic voters on any\n number of issues, and concerns do shift among the Latino electorate \ndepending on gender, age or whether the voter is first generation, \nsecond generation or third generation in this country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the GOP has \u201cmore to overcome\u201d with Latinos, the CU professor \nsaid, the Democrats don\u2019t get a free pass in the 2020 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Democrats have to give Latinos something to vote for,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

John Aguilar is a Denver Post reporter covering hot-button issues such as oil and gas, growth and transportation as they play out in the Denver suburbs<\/em>. @abuvthefold <\/em><\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Just more than half of the state’s eligible Latino voters are registered to vote. by John Aguilar Colorado’s Latino voters, long a growing force on the state’s electoral map, are poised to have an even […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[81],"class_list":{"0":"post-13417","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\/13417","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=13417"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13847,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13417\/revisions\/13847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}