Voters across Minnesota will be participating in this week’ August 13 primary.
At the same time, community-level organizers are starting to engage with Latino voters, making sure they’re energized and ready to take part in the November election.
Communities Organizing Latino Power and Action – COPAL – just re-launched its Minnesota Latino Vote program, one of the largest election outreach efforts among Spanish-speaking populations within the state.
Organizing director Ryan Perez said they hope to make roughly 100,000 connections through their phone banks, along with 10,000 door knocks.
He predicted the Latino vote will play a big role in deciding races in certain districts, especially the bottom half of the state.
“Southern Minnesota in the last 20 years has been basically the major growth of the Latino community in Minnesota,” said Perez. “Places like Austin, Worthington – these are places where Latino voters can and do make a difference in outcomes.”
Organizers are still trying to overcome registration gaps among eligible Latino voters, but they do see opportunity in getting younger generations to cast their ballots.
Census data show there are 345,000 Latinos in Minnesota – 6% of the state’s population. Despite some of the gaps, there was a significant increase in the Latino turnout between the 2016 election and 2020.
In the 2022 midterms, Perez said Latinos in Minnesota were concerned about issues like healthcare and driver’s licenses for all – a plan eventually adopted at the state level.
He said this year, the presidential election – and the inclusion of Gov. Tim Walz on the Democratic ticket – has many Spanish-speaking voters aware of what lies ahead.
But he said candidates and political analysts shouldn’t make assumptions this voting bloc thinks the same way about everything.
“Especially when we’re talking about a group like Latinos,” said Perez, “we’re talking about people from different countries, different preferred languages.”
That means priorities might differ among Latino voters, based on their family’s origins.
As for COPAL’s outreach program, Perez said it goes beyond gathering feedback on the top concerns. Latinos are provided information about how and where to vote, and what their voting rights are.
