They fight for the Hispanic vote

When the Univisión television network announced the two town halls with the presidential candidates, both accepted, but with conditions. Republican Donald Trump asked to do it in Miami, in front of an audience made up of Cuban-Americans.

Democrat Kamala Harris requested that her meeting be held in Las Vegas, with Mexican-American attendees. The formulation is not an accident: Cuban-Americans are seen as Republican supporters; Mexican-Americans are traditionally favorable to Democrats.

Miami is a city formally in the hands of Cubans still influenced by the anti-Castroism of their parents, who exert an excessive influence on US policy towards Cuba, and in recent years, with the support of Central Americans, Colombians and Venezuelans who left their countries pushed by political violence as well as economic necessity.

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Mexican-Americans have been a Democratic audience, but in recent years, as the group has grown in numbers and their descendants come of age, they assume different political positions. Las Vegas, the heart of the state of Nevada, has provoked doubts among Democrats and hopes among Republicans.

It is true that the definitions are not absolute, but the percentages are an example of the political division among Latinos. By national origin, but they show in large part that as a voting block, Latinos have political, religious, and social differences, and that the new generations increasingly resemble the general population.

To make them a more appetizing group, however, they are a minority with a growing social, demographic, economic and political impact.

Now, according to the University of California, Latinos have a gross domestic product of 3.7 trillion dollars, much more than any of the countries from which they come and almost 15 percent of the American GDP. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2023 there were about 63.7 million Hispanics, of which 36.2 million are currently eligible to vote.

Their growth has been around one million voters annually, but immigration is no longer the main driver of that increase. The majority, today, are born in the US.

“The origins of Hispanics in the US have begun to change as immigration patterns from Latin America change. It is worth noting that the number of Mexican immigrants living in the United States has decreased, while the number of immigrants who identify themselves as Dominican, Venezuelan, Guatemalan, Honduran, Salvadoran or of other Hispanic origin has increased,” the report indicated.

According to Pew data, for 2021, “the 5 largest Hispanic populations in the United States by origin group were Mexicans (37.2 million), Puerto Ricans (5., Salvadorans (2.5), Dominicans (2.4), and Cubans (2.4). The other 3 origin groups with populations of more than one million were Guatemalans (1.8 million), Colombians (1.4), and Hondurans (1.1).”

It is believed that there will be more than 17 million Hispanic voters and although they are certainly not all that there could be, their impact is multiplied by their presence in swing states such as Arizona or Nevada, on which it is believed that the result of the election will depend.

The Latino bloc will be the second minority in the US in 20 years. The first, the Anglo-Saxon whites. Of the 56 Latinos in the House of Representatives, 38 are Democrats, including 22 of Mexican origin, and 18 Republicans, four of whom are of Mexican descent. Of the five Latino senators, three have roots in Mexico.

Nota publicada originalmente por José Carreño Figueras en el Heraldo de México