As Latinos are becoming the majority in the United States, the Latino vote is something both parties are clamoring for. Democrats believe that they have a monopoly over the Latino vote and Republicans ache for a piece of that pie. However, if most Latinos vote Democrat, why do we only see Latinos rising in the Republican party? Where are all the Latino Democrat politicians?
In the United States, there are an estimated 5,750 elected officials who are Latino. Almost 90% of them are Democrats.
Only a handful of this 90%, however, are considered prominent politicians believed to be preparing for a path to the White House. One of these Latinos, who is consistently rumored to be on Hillary Clinton’s list for Vice President (V.P.), is Julian Castro, current Secretary of HUD. The reason people believe Castro may be on her short list is to win the Latino vote if Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz become the Republican’s nominee.
The question is, if there are so many Latino Democratic politicians, why don’t we have a single one running for the White House, whereas the Republicans have two viable candidates? After all, when Latino candidates run for any office, they usually garner a higher voter turnout among Latinos.
There are different arguments for why there is such a disparity of prominent Latinos in the Democratic Party’s ranks. One of the most obvious reasons is where these Republican Latinos come from.
The two Latinos currently running for President are Rubio and Cruz, who are both Cuban-Americans. Since 1959, Cubans were welcomed into this country from their communist homeland. Banks were willing to provide loans to help undocumented political refugees so they could start small businesses. They also have a higher rate of home ownership, higher education, and many are home owners. In other words, Cuban-Americans are groomed to succeed.
Most Latino Democratic politicians, however, are Mexican-American. Mexican Americans have inherited a “legacy of discrimination” that Cuban-Americans have not had to face. Historically, Mexican-Americans have not been welcomed whether they are native born, documented, or undocumented. Though there is an increase in successful Mexican-Americans, many still live in poverty, are not homeowners, are incarcerated, or are not seeing the same academic successes as their Cuban-American counterparts.
Cuban-Americans have had better opportunities, a better path to become successful, and they have had the resources necessary to help get them to the top of their fields, including in the political world. They are somehow blinded to the realities that face most Latinos. As a result, they do not understand the issues that hit most Latinos the hardest. Instead they run on platforms against a minimum wage hike, when so many Latinos make less than $15 an hour, live in poverty, and only want a livable wage. They want to overturn the Affordable Care Act, when this piece of legislation led to a reduction in the disparate number of uninsured Latinos. Republican hopefuls want to deregulate government because of a belief this will increase jobs, when Latinos want a better education to be better equipped for a good career or to utilize the skills they already have for green jobs.
Though many Latinos who turn out at the polls do so when there is a Latino candidate running, I would like to believe that they would not vote “for a party who openly hates them” or for crazy politicians such as Rubio or Cruz. Rather than voting because of some shared Latino heritage, Latinos will vote based on their values and beliefs. They will vote just like the rest of Americans vote, for the party or candidate who has the better platform for “jobs, the economy, health care, …education” and immigration.
There are some Latinos who are rising in local, state, and congressional positions. Democrats should consider grooming or ensuring an easy path to the White House, like the path the Republicans made for Rubio and Cruz. These future Democratic Latino presidential hopefuls, however, need to appeal to the values Latinos vote on. As a person with strong Mexican-American roots, I would love to see a future Latino presidential candidate, but this person still has to win my vote, because I prefer someone who is more in alignment with my political values than the color of my skin.
Featured Image by Donkey Hotey via Flickr available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License
