Rising Latino voters could be force in Georgia Senate races
LILBURN, GA. » As Georgia heads into two key runoffs that will determine control of the U.S. Senate, Democrats are hoping to count on Latino voters who helped tilt the state blue in November.
But President Donald Trump rattled Democrats by winning larger-than-expected shares of Hispanic votes in parts of the country, raising questions about how much Democrats can rely on the nation’s largest minority group as a cornerstone of their coalition.
The January runoffs between Republican U. S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler and Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock will be the next test of strength in a state with a growing Latino population of more than 1 million.
Turnout crucial
Democrats want to make sure Latinos turn out again, emphasizing immigration and COVID-19 relief in their campaigns. Republicans want to cut Democrats’ advantage in a youthful and rapidly growing community, reprising Trump’s emphasis on a strong economy for working people and spurning what they describe as Democrats’ embrace of socialism.
Increasing Latino interest and participation has been fed in part by an upswell of political organizing in Latino communities that has reached voters like Anayely Moreno, a Gainesville resident and the daughter of Mexican immigrants.
“I really grew up in a
place where I didn’t hear about politics,” Moreno said “It wasn’t common to talk about politics at home.”
Motivated to vote
Moreno said the struggles of immigrants in her small city northeast of Atlanta, in a state where sentiment against illegal immigration has often been harsh, is the prime motivator driving her to the ballot box.
“We don’t notice all the ways it affects every aspect of our lives,” said Moreno, who volunteers with Georgia Familias Unidas, a group that offers COVID-19 assistance to families and encourages them to vote. “No matter what you’re doing, our lives are affected by policy.”
Moreno, at 24, is in the sweet spot for Georgia’s emerging Latino politics. It’s a young community, with the median age in the late 20s, according to census figures. Spanish speakers began arriving in large
numbers in Georgia in the 1990s, drawn by the boom coinciding with the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
More than a third of the community is younger than 18; about another third are adults in the country illegally, those who study the community say. Many of those who can vote are young adults, with about 20,000 Georgia Latinos turning 18 each year, according to census figures.
AP’s Votecast survey found that 3% of Georgia’s 5 million voters in November were Latino and 60% of them voted for Biden, versus 30% for Trump. Biden’s 36,000-vote margin among Latinos was more than double his overall winning margin in the state.
Turnout of Latino citizens old enough to vote in Georgia increased from 33% in 2016 to 42% this year, according to an analysis by Emory University professor Bernard Fraga and Catalist, a liberal-leaning group that does voter analysis.