While Iowa’s Latino population is significantly small, the campaign to engage them for Monday night’s caucus proved successful.

Tens of Thousands Turnout

As Latin Post reported, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) of Iowa campaigned to increase caucusgoer turnout of the state's Latino population, which represents 0.3 percent of overall Iowa.

LULAC of Iowa worked to contact and register nearly 50,000 Latinos, through phone calls, direct mail, in-person interaction and caucus trainings. The goal was to attract approximately 10,000 Latinos to engage with caucus night. It was "mission accomplished" for the LULAC team as more than 10,000 Latinos participated on Monday night.

"We feel very inspired by the passion our people have shown in becoming involved in the caucus process," said Joe Enriquez Henry, president of LULAC of Iowa. "We have accomplished what we set out to do, which was to raise the profile of the Latino vote in Iowa, educate our community about the caucuses - especially our youth - and mobilize our people to attend and voice their choice for the next president of the United States."

"We feel confident that our people knew the importance they would have in the outcome of tonight's caucuses," added Enriquez Henry in a statement on Monday night, noting the organization will further analyze and verify caucus attendance files from both Democratic and Republican caucuses.

Important Issues

Early entrance polling results in Iowa found what issues are more important for Latinos. According to a statement from Mi Familia Vota Executive Director Ben Monterroso, immigration ranked below health care and the economy. But the fact immigration ranked lower is not surprising for the Latino and immigrant non-profit organization.

"We have seen this occur in past election polling, with immigration usually listed below other issues like health care and the economy. In fact, ongoing polling on immigration have consistently produced voter support for commonsense immigration policies," said Monterroso. "But those facts have not stopped conservative politicians from using immigrants as cheap applause lines at rallies and in news interviews."

Monterroso added that voters will look for candidates who will help families gain better affordable health care access, equal access to quality education and a minimum wage increase so that families can earn a living wage.

Mi Familia Vota, which operates in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada and Texas, anticipates the next caucus, which will be held in Nevada on Feb. 20, a state with 27.8 percent Latino population.

Iowa Caucus Results

In the GOP field, Ted Cruz won the Republican Iowa Caucus 27.6 percent, ahead of 24.3 percent for Donald Trump and 23.1 percent for Marco Rubio. Fellow Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee suspended his campaign after finishing with 1.8 percent, only finishing ahead of Chris Christie, Rick Santorum and Jim Gilmore.

On the Democratic field, the results were significantly close with Hillary Clinton receiving 49.8 percent and Bernie Sanders with 49.6 percent. Fellow Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley also announced his campaign suspension on Monday night, as he received 0.5 percent of the caucus vote.

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For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Politics Editor Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.

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