In each electoral cycle we hear the chant that Hispanics will be the decisive factor in the presidential elections.
And it is correct. We have the potential as long as Hispanic US citizens over the age of 18 register and vote, by mail or in person.
In 2024 we are witnessing a real fight between Joe Biden and Donald Trump for that Latino vote. The reason is very simple. Arizona and Nevada are among the six key states that could define the election.
In Arizona – a state won by Biden by 10,457 votes in 2020 – almost one in four voters in the state will be Hispanic (23.5%), which means that 850,000 Latinas and Latinos will cast their vote, according to estimates from the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO).
In Nevada, also won by Biden by less than 3%, almost one in five voters (18.5%) will be Hispanic, equivalent to 280,000 voters that could tip the balance under the scenario of a tight national election.
With this context, it is not surprising that Trump launched his new “Latin Americans for Trump” initiative this week, seeking to increase the proportion of support from this important segment of the electorate in relation to 2020, when he had 38% support, despite of his campaign of attacks on the migrant community.
“In 2020, we got more Hispanic votes than any other Republican in more than 50 years. And we won border counties in Texas that no Republican candidate had won in more than a century!” Trump boasted during a visit to Las Vegas, Nevada last weekend.
As expected, President Biden’s campaign responded to the Republican initiative and recalled that it was Trump who launched the separation of migrant families, the end of protections for “dreamers” and raised the rate of Hispanic unemployment at 9.3% in December 2020, his last full month in the White House.
Biden will seek to offset the criticism he received for his executive order to restrict the entry of asylum seekers at the border with Mexico, with a new immigration relief program to provide protections to the spouses of US citizens who meet certain seniority requirements in the United States.
Biden’s new immigration relief announcement is expected to take place in the coming days, as the fight between the two main presidential candidates for the crucial Hispanic vote intensifies.
But beyond the outcome of the presidential election, or the results in Nevada and Arizona, the civic participation of Hispanics is crucial at the national level.
In the United States there are more than half a million elected positions. From school systems, state legislatures, mayors, federal officials and the presidency.
If we register and vote, we help elect candidates who defend our interests, and also the interests of those members of our community who for different reasons cannot vote, such as the ‘dreamers’.
Your vote is our voice, our future.
