Former President Trump’s election to a second, nonconsecutive term instantly changed the approach to tracking the Hispanic electorate and buried immigration and identity politics as gateway issues for the Latino electorate.
The election on Tuesday drew a line under the idea of a non-monolithic Hispanic community, making clear that geographic, economic, gender, age, national origin, and ideological differences outweighed all considerations of Latino identity.
In other words, Hispanic voters largely behaved this way others in the general electorate and were influenced in one direction or another by campaign appearances on vital issues, particularly the economy.
“There were a lot of Latinos who didn’t know or, frankly, just didn’t know [but] Who couldn’t tell you who was for them and who was against them on economic issues? So I think the Democratic Party not only needs to be much clearer about who we’re here for. I think the Latinos also wanted to know who we were against. So when it comes to the streets, we are ready to stand up for working people, including Latinos, when we have to stand up for special interests, or when we have to stand up against corruption, or when we have to fight back against the very Rich and powerful,” said Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), a progressive who won re-election by a wide margin on Tuesday.
On the other hand, questions of cultural identity proved not to be as jarring as some had expected.
The final week of the campaign began with a dispute over a loss to Puerto Rico at former President Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden (MSG). community leader, ExpertsBoth the press and campaign officials interpreted the incident as an electrifying moment for Puerto Rican voters, who would emerge as a key bloc in moving Pennsylvania toward Vice President Harris.
That moment never came.
“It shows us, among other things, that a lot of people who have had very loud microphones and tried to speak on behalf of the people of Puerto Rico as a whole or Puerto Ricans in the States as a whole may not be doing so.” just as attuned to the realities in their community as they thought,” said George Laws García, director of the Puerto Rico Statehood Council.
Harris won Pennsylvania’s Lehigh County — home to Allentown, a major hub for the state’s Puerto Rican community — but trailed President Biden’s performance there by about 4,000 votes in 2020.
She lost Osceola County, Florida, that state’s Puerto Rican capital, beating Biden by more than 13,000 votes.
Still, perhaps buoyed by the fallout from the MSG incident, the vice president won overwhelmingly in Puerto Rico’s presidential election, a nonbinding vote that allows the island’s residents to show their support for a candidate on Election Day.
In that election, Harris received 73 percent of the vote, more than Gov.-elect Jenniffer González-Colón (R) and more than the statehood option in the plebiscite on the island’s status.
“They are swing voters. They’re going to talk to the candidates that they feel spoke to them the most, and on the island, Jenniffer González was the candidate who spoke to them the most, and nationally, Puerto Rican voters felt on the Island more connected to message “You saw what came out of the Harris campaign,” Laws said.
Harris’ platform failed to reach enough voters nationally, which observers across the political spectrum attribute to her economic message.
“People will vote with their wallets, as happened with Reagan, as happened with Clinton,” said Iván García-Hidalgo, a Republican strategist.
“And a lot of people’s wallets are broken right now. And the problem is that she didn’t bring it up. And they gave her a lot of options: ‘What would you do differently?’ and ‘What would you fix?’ and she didn’t do anything.”
It’s still unclear whether Hispanic would-be Democrats mostly stayed home or converted to the Republican Party, but the change is stunning.
According to exit polls, Trump’s share of the vote increased by 25 percentage points, surpassing former President George W. Bush’s record set in 2004.
The Latino political establishment remained largely still Wednesday as a coalition of major civil rights and advocacy groups postponed a planned event to present their analysis of the Latino vote.
Democrats like Casar were shocked by the extent of the change but not surprised that the party failed to break through Trump’s portrayal of the left.
“Trump would lie and say your housing is more expensive, or health care is worse, or your wages are worse because of immigrants. Right? He would lie and blame immigrants for people’s economic burden, and Democrats couldn’t say clearly enough: “Housing is more expensive because of Wall Street, not because of immigrants.” Their health care is worse because of Big Pharma, not because of immigrants. “Wages are stagnating, not because of immigrants, but because of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos,” Casar said.
“And without the Democrats clearly having a message that pointed the finger at the real villains…all that was left was Trump’s lie. And we Democrats cannot tolerate, whether fairly or unfairly, being falsely portrayed as a party out of touch with the economic interests of working people.”
