Why we must elect more Latinos

In 43 years, we fought the Cold War, the Berlin Wall came down, a former actor redefined conservatism and the first woman joined the Supreme Court. America is waging a war on terrorism, and our lives have been turned upside down with the internet’s business, cultural and social revolution. We’ve done it all, except for one thing. We Arizonans apparently don’t believe in diversity, given that no Hispanic has won the governorship in those 43 years. Yes, Raul Castro’s election in 1974 is the first — and only — time a Hispanic governed the state. But forget the governorship. We Arizonans won’t even consider electing a Hispanic to a statewide post, though 30 percent of the state’s 6.9 million residents are Latinos.

Yep. We Arizonans are pretty darn good at ignoring Latinos.

We ignore the fact that our K-12 public-school system has a Latino majority, and that Latinos are literally building, cooking and cleaning for Arizona.

We ignore that Latinos are teachers, lawyers, doctors, engineers and journalists.

And you know what else we Arizonans are failing to notice? That Latinos will eventually climb to the top through local elections.

Arturo Vargas is making sure of that through his group, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund.

The 6,000-plus member organization is opening an office in Phoenix to help groom and train Hispanics.

In 2016, there were 349 Latinos holding elected office in Arizona, up from 256 in 2001, according to NALEO. Arizona has the fourth-highest number of Hispanics in office, just behind Texas, California and New Mexico.

“Just because you got elected to office doesn’t mean you’re going to change things if you don’t know how the system works,” said Vargas, whose group will offer training on everything from how to read a financial budget to running a meeting.

The goal includes helping those already in office and encourage others to get involved.

There are many factors that keep Latinos from getting elected to statewide offices, including voter turnout, crossover appeal and a lack of financial backing.

That’s why Latinos in Arizona and across the nation are getting elected to mostly school boards, municipal and county posts.

School boards are a good place to start because education is key to this community and also because it can be a springboard to higher elected office.

Some of the 20 Hispanics who served at the state Legislature in 2016 got into politics through school boards.

That’s good. But how come Latinos can’t get elected to statewide office? What’s wrong with Hispanics, I asked Vargas.

“There is nothing wrong with Latinos,” Vargas said. “The system doesn’t work for them.”

In other words, the odds are stuck against Latinos, and Arizona isn’t the only state with a penchant to ignore them. Latinos are having a hard time getting elected even Texas and California.

For instance, California’s Secretary of State Alex Padilla is the second Latino elected to statewide office. Last December, Xavier Becerra was appointed attorney general.

“We need crossover candidates to articulate a political agenda that speaks to more than just Latinos,” Vargas said. “It’s difficult to run statewide and succeed. You have to raise the money and attract non-Latino support.”

Next year, university associate professor David Garcia, lawyer January Contreras and state Sen. Steve Montenegro are putting that notion to the test in their bids for governor, attorney general and secretary of state, respectively.

We must cheer for Vargas’ success in Arizona.

Why? Because Arizona will be better when the state’s government reflects its population.

Vargas’ work isn’t partisan so let’s applaud his penchant to groom Republicans as much as Democrats and independents.

“We need Latinos in the Republican Party. We need Latinos in leadership in the Republican Party,” he said. “You can’t put your eggs in just one party.”

I’m certainly hoping we Arizonans don’t have to wait 43 more years to change the state’s political landscape, one that reflects inclusiveness and diversity.

Elvia Díaz is an editorial columnist for The Republic and azcentral. Reach her at 602-444-8606 or elvia.diaz@arizonarepub lic.com. Follow her on Twitter, @elviadi az1.