Latinos Came Through For Democrats
Also: Despite a political shift in South Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis won reelection because of one demographic: white people
Here we go. As it happens with every election, Latinos are taking the blame for Democrat losses across the country. The shift Republicans and media pundits were predicting didn’t happen. The conservative extremist movement has no more support from Latinos than it did during the former president’s reign. In fact, in many places, Latino support for Republicans is waning.
In South Texas, Governor Greg Abbott predicted he would win border counties and as much as 50% support from Latinos. Despite his reelection, none of those occurred. In Harris County, Texas, where Houston is located, conservatives lost across the board. Democrats ran the table on Republicans because of a coalition of Black, Latino, and other non-white voters.
For Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, however, the political shift did happen, although, barely. He won over Cuban and Puerto Rican voters. Cubans, who were once angered by DeSantis’ plan to traffic migrants (including Cubans) decided that since he exempted them from his operation, they would vote for him. It’s a message suggesting that for those Latino voters, using non-white asylum-seekers as political pawns is okay as long as it doesn’t affect their family members.
As liberals continue to point to Latinos and blame them for DeSantis’ victory, it’s worth noting that Florida is solidly Republican not because of Latinos but because of non-Hispanic white people who make up more than 50% of the population, according to the U.S. Census. It’s also worth noting that when we include Hispanic whites, the white population jumps to nearly 75% in Florida. Suddenly, DeSantis’ success with Cubans and Puerto Ricans makes sense.
DeSantis won only 13% of the Black vote but 57% of the Latino vote and 64% of the white vote. His tactics to send asylum-seekers to other cities and abortion became less of an issue than inflation and the economy. That’s because Republicans were successful in creating culture wars around police funding, the economy, and Joe Biden’s low approval rating. They equated many issues to socialism which scares the hell out of Cubans, Venezuelans, and others.
What Republicans are good at is misinformation.
Where conservative tactics didn’t work is telling. Republicans suffered critical losses in several key elections, particularly concerning their self-proclaimed takeover of Congress. Not only did Democrats fend off a far-right takeover in the Houston area and other municipalities in Texas - such as counties along the border - they also held Republicans back in very close races in highly sought-after swing states.
As many discuss this being an indictment against Trump’s Republican Party, it seems the broad range of conspiracy theories and hyperbolic rhetoric worked against them with Latinos. The more the Republican Party embraces extremist “white extinction” nonsense, the more they can expect to lose voters of color. Particularly Latinos across the country (with very little exception).
And with people like Republican Senator Josh Hawley declaring on Twitter, “The old party is dead. Time to bury it. Build something new,” it seems some in the party want to keep going even further to the extreme right. Hawley once led Senate efforts to overturn the Electoral College vote count and rallied election deniers leading to the January 6 attack.
If the party continues its march to the far-right, Independent Latinos are surely to jump ship after so many came through for Democrats in the latest elections. Latinos put in the efforts on the ground in Texas, not the Democratic Party. That in itself suggests that Latinos are determined to keep extremism out of office. When it comes to electing the Governor, it’s become increasingly difficult with gerrymandered districts and white voters dominating them.
Wherever Democrats took a loss, you’ll see Latinos that worked diligently to get them elected. In areas where Democrats put little effort and even less money, Latinos were there too. And where Democrats won? Yep. You guessed it. It was the proverbial “Latino Vote” that did it. All over the country, Latinos are leading grassroots coalitions of non-white people, and white allies, to do the work. They’re organizing and getting people to the polls.
They’re helping lift the fears common among Spanish-speaking Latinos who may have never voted before. Younger Latino generations are making the biggest difference not just in the voting booth, but because of the work that they do between elections. But for many places, like Uvalde, Texas, which voted for Greg Abbott by 60%, voter suppression works much like it did in the days of the Klan.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone if intimidation and threats of law enforcement intervention in people’s lives are what kept people home. Racial profiling in Uvalde is non-stop. Latinos are often stopped and their vehicles are searched on their way to work, to the store, or on their way home - despite police seeing the same vehicles with the same people in them every single day.
Uvalde is one of the most policed places in America. It’s not just local, county, and state police they have to contend with. They also have border patrol, ICE, the Texas National Guard, and far-right militias hunting for “illegal” immigrants. In that environment, it’s not hard to see why so many may be intimidated by voting.
And when a majority of Latinos in the county identify as white, voting for Greg Abbott is more about maintaining that proximity to whiteness than doing what’s right.
It’s about access to white men with power.