Excerpt: Forever Seen as New: Latino Participation in American Elections

DeSipio, Louis, and Rodolfo O. de la Garza. [2002] 2005. "Forever Seen as New: Latino Participation in American Elections". Pp. 342-346 in Understanding Society, 2nd ed., edited by Margaret L. Andersen, Kim Logio, and Howard Taylor. Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning, Inc.

The Latino population in the United States is rising, and by 2050 is expected to amount to 30% of the total US population. In 2002, when this article was written, only 1 in 6 Latinos voted in elections.

However, the potential for a cohesive "Latino electorate" is growing in size and strength, and it becomes incrementally more influential each election cycle. The authors highlight a few different reasons for this and note that Latino empowerment could in the near future determine the outcome of national elections.

DeSipio and de la Garza claim that as the Latino population ages and as more Latinos are educated and achieve middle-class status, the number of Latinos who vote will increase by about 10-15% every four years. Additionally, about 39% of Latino immigrants are eligible for naturalization, which would enable them to vote as well.

Latinos are concentrated in nine states, which elect "three-quarters of the electors needed to win the presidency", which the authors feel is both good and bad: good, in that Latinos could exert a great amount of influence if they vote as a bloc; bad, if their state is not one of the "swing states" where campaigns are focused.

Latino "elites", PACS, and organizations have emerged recently (as of 2002) to educate non-Latino candidates about Latino issues, to advocate Latino causes, and to mobilize the Latino voters. This "phenomenon" could lead to a greater voice and power of the Latino electorate.

The article is dated; in 2002 it would have been more relevant (and especially so in 1996, when the authors' previous works were published), but by now the growing Latino influence is taken for granted. When President Obama was elected, there was a good deal of media coverage of the Latino populations, and even today it's not uncommon to see headlines referring to the "Latino vote".

Relevance: 2/5 (irrelevant)
Salience: 3/5 (neutral)

References:

• de la Garza, Rodolfo O. 1996a. "El Cuento de los Números and Other Latino Political Myths." Pp. 11-32 in Su Voto es Su Voz: Latino Politics in California, edited by Aníbal Yáñez-Chávez. San Diego: Center for U.S. Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego. - author's previous work, cited in agreement.
• U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1996. Population Projections of the United States by Age, Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin: 1995 to 2050. Current Population Reports, Series P-25, No. 1130. - as an example.
• de la Garza, Rodolfo O. 1996b. "The Effects of Primordial Claims, Immigration, and the Voting Rights Act on Mexican American Sociopolitical Incorporation." Pp. 163-176 in The Politics of Minority Coalitions: Race, Ethnicity, and Shared Uncertainties, edited by Wilbur C. Rich. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. - author's previous work, cited in agreement.
  
• DeSipio, Louis. 1996. Counting on the Latino Vote: Latinos as a New Electorate. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia. - author's previous work.