SIGN UP FOR OUR Washington, Oct 30 — The 2016 elections will be the most diverse in U.S. history and, once again, Hispanics – the country’s largest minority – will play an important role.
Trump does retain appeal for some Latinos, such as Raul Rodriguez Jr. of Apple Valley, California. Photo from Buzzfeed.
Some 57 million Hispanics live in the United States – more than 27 million of them registered voters – and it is expected that 13 million will go to the polls on Nov. 8.
Although this estimate is no significant increase over the 48 percent who voted in 2012, which was below the national voting average, it is unknown how great the “(Donald) Trump effect” will be in mobilizing a greater Latino turnout.
“Half of Latino voters are located in just three states (New York, California and Texas) and these are not necessarily competitive states,” Mark Hugo Lopez, the director of Hispanic research for the Pew Research Center, told EFE.
Historically, Latinos have relatively low voter participation and low interest in political campaigns.
“The Trump effect is, without a doubt, behind the fact that Latinos may go to the polls in greater numbers. They’re concerned and angry after having been insulted by him,” said the head of the Democratic National Committee in Texas, Gilberto Hinojosa.
Hinojosa is optimistic that Hispanics will be the key in swinging Texas Democratic for the first time in four decades in a presidential election. He said that in recent weeks, millions of dollars have been spent on campaign ads, many of them with Latino radio stations.
Latinos will also be key this year in Florida, where Democrats are hoping to win the vote of Puerto Ricans who have fled their island’s crisis, and in Arizona, where controversial sheriff, Joe Arpaio, could lose his reelection bid after 22 years in office.
And in the coming years, states that are now secure Republican bastions such as Wyoming, Idaho and Utah, could be swayed by Latinos.
One in every four “millennials” in the United States – people between 18 and 35 years of age – is Hispanic and, with 800,000 Hispanic citizens becoming adults each year, it’s clear that Latinos are becoming more and more politically relevant. EFE
