Both parties remain clueless about Latino voters
SAN DIEGO >> As we approach the Nov. 8 midterm elections, much of the media is buzzing about the Latino vote. If only the Fourth Estate knew the first thing about the subject.
Here’s what we do know: There are about 34.5 million Latinos who are eligible voters. We live in battleground states such as Texas, Arizona, Nevada and Florida. And we swing from one camp to another and often vote the person over the party. Our voting is nuanced and complicated.
Unfortunately, a media that gravitates to the extremes doesn’t do well with “nuanced” and “complicated.”
Currently, there is a rightward drift by Latinos away from the Democratic Party. Latino men in particular are looking at the party of “deporter in chief” Barack Obama and saying, “No way, Jose.”
According to polls, Latinos’ top issues for 2022 are jobs, inflation, crime and immigration. Democrats have failed all four courses.
Some of the drifters are moving toward a Republican Party that has spent the past 30 years scaring up votes from White folks by convincing them the country is being invaded by people who look a lot like the Latino voters the GOP is now embracing.
Remarkably, Republicans are strutting around like there was some big national debate for the Latino vote and they won.
A lot of Republicans seem to think Latinos are attracted to them because of their ideas and warm personalities. These people don’t have a clue. If Republicans thought half as much of Latinos as they think of themselves, they’d be much better off.
In 2022, Latino voters are living with the aftershocks of the 2020 election. What happened then has set the tone for what is happening now.
In 2020, according to the Pew Research Center, Joe Biden got 59 percent of the Latino vote, and Donald Trump received 38 percent. That’s only a 21-point margin of victory against an incumbent president who was antiLatino. Just four years earlier, in 2016, Hillary Clinton beat Trump with Latinos by a much more respectable spread: 38 points.
Today, the GOP has convinced itself that it has a shot at getting those votes while Democrats remain saddled with — as the leader of their party — someone whom Latinos never cared much for.
In response, Democrats have concluded that there is something wrong — with Latinos. Some say Latino voters are falling for “misinformation” that makes Democrats look radical, particularly on cultural issues such as abortion, gender identity or defunding the police.
These people don’t have a clue either. Democrats react to Latinos with condescension and insult. A loyal constituency that has backed the Democratic nominee in the last 16 presidential elections deserves better.
The implication of the “misinformation” charge is that Latinos are suckers who are easily hoodwinked. Actually, as voters go, we’re a lot more sophisticated than the Democratic Party gives us credit for.
Let me share a story about one of the most sophisticated voters I’ve ever covered: my mom.
In 2000, my mother — a lifelong Democrat raised in South Texas — was so impressed by the biography of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that she changed our party registration to Republican just so she could vote for him in the GOP presidential primary. When McCain lost the nomination to Texas Gov. George W. Bush, I asked my mom if she was excited to vote for Bush in the general election. “Not really,” she said, explaining that she had switched back to being a Democrat. “Why?” I asked. “Look,” she said. “McCain is a hero. But Bush? That’s a whole different man right there. You can’t compare the two.” Mom has been a Democrat ever since.
The moral of this story: As swing voters, Latinos are gonna swing. That’s our right, and we’re not shy about exercising it. I realize this drives the partisans crazy. But that’s not why we do it. That’s just a bonus.