Latino Voters Still a Tough Code to Crack for Democrats

(Photo : Reuters)

Latino voters remain a challenge for the Democrats to gain support from. If the candidates want to gain the upper hand, they know they must gain the group's trust first.

According to The New York Times, the sentiments of the Latino community is complex and the Democrats still have not totally figured out how to solve it. The group is diverse and the problems go beyond immigration issues. They want jobs, they are conservative and they want equal treatment in health insurance and jobs. What the Democrats need to do to win the support of the community, and get their votes in the election, is to see Hispanics and Latinos as a different group from the African-Americans.

A big part of why Hillary Clinton lost las time was that campaigns linked her to abortions, which affected the views of Latino churchgoers. The Democrats realize there is a gap between Latinos and Roman Catholics and that did not stop the former joining Protestant and evangelical churches.

A report from Latin Post shows that Bernie Sanders knows the importance of getting Latino voters to act and unite during the 2020 elections. Bernie's campaign promise includes healthcare for all and job protection for minimum wage earners, two sentiments that are close to the heart of South American immigrants. 

"We're seeing young people getting involved in the political process in a very important way. The challenge that we face is that, historically, voter turnout in the Latino community is not very high. So we are doing everything we can in a variety of ways to organize," a part of Sander's statement reads. As such, the camp of Bernie has made stops at Riverside City College, California State University-Bakersfield and Fresno City College where Latinos almost make up 50 percent of the students enrolled. . 

On the other hand, per Medium, a report tried to see how much the Latino community is contributing to the Democratic Presidential Candidates. It is estimated that 713,678 contributions were made from January 1, 2019 through June 30, 2019. This resulted to a whopping 13.54 million dollars from Latinos. 

The Democrat candidates must work doubly hard than their predecessors. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden do not enjoy the popularity of Barack Obama, John Edwards, Al Gore or Hillary Clinton, FiveThirtyEight reports. While the three are not popular in the general public, a lot can still happen that can shape the election results. 

The Pew Center revealed that the Latinos will be the largest minority in next year's electorate, slightly higher than Black voters. This means Latinos and Hispanics cannot be ignored and their votes could be a game-changer in a tight race.

In a bid to boost their chance in next year's elections, Vice President Mike Pence launched "Latinos for Trump" initiative. He added that the President is a "a great champion of Latino and Hispanic Americans" . Even the Republicans are shifting the focus to wooing the Hispanics because it considers its voting power seriously. The Washington Post states that in Florida and California, Trump lagged behind in survey results and that a majority wants to see a Democrat become the next U.S. president. 

If Democrats want to maintain the lead, they must start doubling their efforts now before the Republicans take it from the palm of their hands.