There Are 13 Million Latino Voters This November but Who Will They Vote for?

According to The National Association for Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) statistics, there will be 13 million Latino voters this November.

The NALEO Educational Fund projections state there is an increase of 17 percent Latino voters this year compared to only 11 million in 2012.

"Early primary results have shown that the Latino vote is still very much up for grabs, even within the nation's major political parties," said NALEO Executive Director Arturo Vargas. "With more than 13.1 million Latinos expected to head to the polls to make their voices heard, no candidate or political party can afford to take our support for granted if they want to win the race for the White House in 2016."

The statistics were taken by studying and looking at how much Latinos have voted in the last four Presidential elections. They were then compared to the Current Population Survey data from the US Census Bureau reports, Voting and Registration in the Elections of November 2000-2012. The statistics do not factor out the number of voters added or subjected from Latino naturalizations, voter registration and voting laws issues and many more.

According to the Pew Research Center, nearly half of the eligible Latino voters are millennials and there has been pressure on presidentiables to reach out the Latino community as they hold some power to make or break their candidacy.

"We are only going up, but the question is how far," said Vargas. "We still have a performance gap."

As to who the Latinos will vote for will depend on the platforms of the candidates. Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have reached out to the Hispanic-Americans for their votes. The latest poll in Nevada, much like any election result, is unclear of who got the Latinos favor.

The Democrats, are hopeful, however, that Latinos will vote for them instead of their Republican counterparts. It remains to be seen how much of the Latino population will vote for them. Interestingly, during the last presidential elections in 2012, more than 70 percent of Latinos went for President Obama while the rest voted for Mitt Romney.

Presidential candidates and Republicans Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Marco Rubio, who are both Cuban-Americans, are facing challenges in Nevada where it has a sizable Latino community. Both are being led by Donald Trump, who has a large lead against the two.

Immigration and deportation laws remain to be the biggest concerns of Latinos. Rubio and Cruz have made their stance regarding immigrants by suggesting stricter legal immigration processes and abolishing President Obama's "executive actions" that benefit immigrants.