Latinos could be a growing political force in NC. But will they register and vote?
Maria Mendez of Lexington, 23, is part of a demographic that has boomed in North Carolina, where the children of migrant workers who came here a generation ago are now coming of age.
Born to Mexican parents, she is young. She is Latina. And she is a citizen.
She’s also registered to vote.
In a state expected to have an outsize impact on the 2020 presidential election, political strategists are trying to figure out how to register voters like her — and more importantly, get them to go to the polls.
“If people don’t go out to vote, candidates don’t see that there’s a community that cares and wants to have their voice heard,” said Irlanda Ruiz, who works to register young Latinos as a volunteer with Action NC. “Voting is way more powerful than any kind of protest or demonstration you might do. It’s not a partisan issue. It’s a matter of rights.”
Nationally, turnout among Latino voters jumped in 2018, nearly doubling since the 2014 midterm election, according to the Pew Research Center. And unlike the population at large, millennials make up the greatest number of them.
North Carolina has had one of the fastest-growing Hispanic populations in the country and, at around 1 million, one of the largest populations outside of the Northeast and Southwest. According to UNC-Chapel Hill’s Carolina Demographics, North Carolina’s Hispanic population grew 24.6% between 2010 and 2018, outpacing the national increase of 18.6%.
“All of those children who were born of immigrant parents are growing up,” said Matt Barreto, co-founder of Latino Decisions and a political scientist at UCLA. “(W)e’re seeing a massive increase in the number of U.S.-born Latino youth who are eligible to vote in North Carolina. It’s not linear growth. It’s exponential.”
There are 212,000 registered Latino voters in North Carolina, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections. That’s only 3% of the state’s 6.9 million voters. Because that’s based on people voluntarily identifying their ethnicity, officials say that number is likely higher.
There’s room to grow. In 2017 there were 319,000 Latinos eligible to vote in North Carolina based on their age and citizenship, according to an analysis last year by UNC’s Carolina Demography. That was more than half of Latino adults.
“The potential is huge, but they’re not registered yet,” Barreto said. “They have to be registered and engaged. They need to be getting door-knocks and phone calls. They need to be getting bilingual pieces of mail about the elections . . . People don’t register to vote if they don’t believe the political system cares about them.”
Push from both parties
Both parties are trying to mobilize North Carolina’s Latino vote.
This week the Democratic Party announced a “multi-million dollar” push in North Carolina and five other battleground states that will pay for organizers and office staff. DNC Chair Tom Perez has cited North Carolina as one of the party’s most important battlegrounds.
“Based on the turnout of Latinos in 2018 we’re very encouraged,” said Enrique Gutiérrez, the national party’s Hispanic Media Director. “In North Carolina it’s one of those important constituencies.”
Exit polls in 2018 found that 69% of Latino voters supported Democrats while 29% backed Republicans. Perez has repeatedly cited North Carolina as one of the most important states nationally when it comes to Democratic strategy.
State Democratic Party spokesman Robert Howard said it’s focused on expanding the electorate by reaching out to Latinos and other Democratic-leaning groups who may not have a regular history of voting.
That hasn’t stopped Republicans from pushing to get Latinos to the polls. Party officials say they’ve held more than three dozen events in swing states like North Carolina designed to energize Hispanic voters. They’ve trained community organizers in English and Spanish.
“With our world class data operation, we are targeting key voters with individualized messaging to ensure President Trump’s re-election in November,” said Yalí Núñez, director of Hispanic media for the Republican National Committee.
Critics are skeptical of both parties’ efforts.
“What often happens is political parties don’t reach out to Latino voters: folks are never asked to vote and therefore don’t turn out to vote,” said Juliana Cabrales, mid-Atlantic director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. “If you don’t ask them for your voter there’s no guarantee they’re going to support you. No political party should take for granted the Latino vote.”
‘The margin of victory‘
In a 2019 survey of eligible Latino voters by the polling firm Latino Decisions, health care, jobs and immigration were ranked as the top three issues going into 2020. Charlotte Hispanic activist Olma Echeverri said she believes those issues will drive voters to the polls.
“I think we’re very motivated because of all the issues at the federal level,” she said. “And we are hoping to capitalize on that.“
Echeverri said that for naturalized citizens from Latin America, negative experiences with the political process in their countries of origin can often keep them from the ballot box in the U.S.
“Most people have a cynicism, and with good reason, that their vote doesn’t count, that politicians don’t do anything,” she said. “They don’t believe in the system, even though they’ve enjoyed schools, good highways, and affordable housing.”
Even her younger brother asked her, “Why should I go vote? I don’t need to that,” she said.
While parts of the country with a longer history of immigrant populations, such as Texas and New York, offer voting in multiple languages, North Carolina does not. Many people don’t know that they can vote early, that they can request language assistance at the polls or that they’re entitled to take time off to work.
But if they do vote, that could make a difference.
“I don’t know that we know what happens next,” said Rebecca Tippett, director of Carolina Demography. “There’s a lot more uncertainty than there is certainty. When we’re starting to talk about an electoral perspective in any race, a group this large has the potential to make up the margin of victory.”
This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 8:31 AM with the headline "Latinos could be a growing political force in NC. But will they register and vote?."
