These efforts reflect how important Latino voters are to the success of the Democratic Party, but also the magnitude of work that is needed to win back a group that represents nearly 20 percent of the population. Democrats have long viewed these constituents – a diverse group that includes dozens of different countries of origin and a wide variety of socioeconomic backgrounds – as an almost monolithic bloc that could be taken for granted and operated as if the most important factor it was only participation; the logic was that if Latino voters voted, they would vote for Democrats.
However, the year 2020, with a historic 18.7 million votes cast by Latinos, was proof of how wrong that theory was. Although more or less the 60 percent voted for President Joe Biden, the lean toward Donald Trump sent Democrats into a period of soul-searching.
Although there has not been a detailed and conclusive analysis, exit polls and sample groups from both parties indicate that Trump won the votes of Latinos without college education who criticized the mandates of closure of activities amid the pandemic and believed that the former president would be a better manager of the economy. Republicans also won votes from South Florida Cubans, Venezuelans, and Colombians who viewed Democrats as supporting socialism, as well as from Mexican Americans in South Texas and other regions who supported their border policies. Evangelicals made up a significant portion of Trump’s Latino supporters for their rejection of abortion.
Now, the Democratic Party is trying to use the data to better understand Latino voters and try to expand a more detailed understanding of how various national origins, economic status, and other factors change voting behavior.
As a candidate and president-elect, Biden has had mixed success in communicating with Latinos. In the primaries in early 2020, he closely followed rival Bernie Sanders among Latino voters. Senior Latino officials were frustrated during their campaign last year by the absence of Hispanic representatives in their inner circle.
Some activists quietly call the new efforts mediocre, noting that while communication has increased, there has been no major policy victory on a major issue like immigration reform. But they recognize that there is a growing acceptance that winning Latino votes will take more than visiting taquerías and inserting phrases, in bad Spanish, into campaign speeches.
“In terms of their commitment, they are doing a much better job right now than they did during the first Barack Obama administration,” said Arturo Vargas, the executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials, who recently briefed staff members from the White House on the organization’s political priorities. “We didn’t have this kind of rapprochement with Obama.”
–
