Politics

Growing Latino Voting Bloc Could Be Critical to Outcome of Presidential Election

Latinos are a key voting bloc in this year’s presidential election.

Pew Research estimates Latinos make up nearly 15% of the eligible voting population in the United States, with roughly 36.2 million Latino voters. That’s up from 32.3 million in 2020.

“One of the important things that people need to think about is that over the next 20 years, a quarter of all new voters are guaranteed to be Latinos,” said communications and political consultant Jose I. Sanchez Molina. “When you look at what Latinos care about, there’s three issues Unidos was able to identify. … One was cost of living. Second, access to high quality paying jobs. And third was health care.”

With President Joe Biden dropping his bid for reelection and Vice President Kamala Harris earning the Democratic nomination as the first woman of color to lead a major party’s ticket, some early polls indicate Harris is leading former President Donald Trump among Latino voters.

“The main thing that Kamala Harris has done for Latinos is kind of re-engage a bunch of Democratic-leaning voters who had been alienated by Joe Biden in particular,” said Geraldo Cadava, author of “The Hispanic Republican” and a professor of history at Northwestern University. “So far, it’s kind of been a battle of words and people have called it ‘the vibes election,’ where people are trying to just get a sense of how they feel about a candidate. But I think the period between now and November is going to be a rush for both candidates to make clear what their policies are going to be on all of the issues that matter for Latinos.”