Hispanic voters drifting more toward GOP

A recent New York Times/Siena College poll shows Hispanic are evenly split on generic congressional ballot. Here to talk more about Hispanic voting trends are Jaimie Molera, Founder of Molera-Alvarez and Roy Herrera, founder of Herrera-Arellano, a litigation and public affairs firms.

According to Jaime Molera, we are seeing over a time that Latinos are starting to catch up to other ethnicities as far as voting patterns are concerned. However, we still lie behind. The data shows that latinos are taken for granted, at least in Arizona, because the Republicans do not do enough to try and engage Latino voters. It is the same story for their Democratic counterparts as well. Unfortunately, both parties need to do more to get out the votes.  

“In Arizona we are looking at about 13% of the electorate being Latino and across the United States it’s around 20%. Somebody recently described the Latino electorate as kind of the last choice swing vote. I think both sides have to do a better job in reaching out to the latino community in a way that actually focuses on the issues that are most important to them which often times happens to be similar issues like economy and healthcare cost, it’s not always about immingration reform.” Roy Herrera said. 

Why Hispanic are trending more to the Republican side? 

According to Jaime Molera, there is a frustration amongst Latinos. Data shows that law enforcement is important in their communities. So when you have the more progressive side of the democratic party talking about defunding the police, for instance, that has an impact on some communities. 

How Latinos will vote is a crucial question in the November elections, and for the future of American politics. Hispanic voters are playing a pivotal role in the battle over the control of Congress, making up a significant slice of voters in two of the states likeliest to determine control of the Senate- Arizona and Nevada.