Latinos Reached Milestones in Midterm Races
PHOENIX — There was plenty of grim news for Latinos in Tuesday’s election results: three Latino congressmen were voted out, the odds of an
overhaul appeared to diminish and — here in the state that gave rise to the strictest immigration measure of all — hardliners were re-elected amid vows to continue cracking down on illegal immigrants.But 2010 also signifies a milestone of sorts for Latinos, the country’s largest minority: their overwhelming support for Democrats in the midterm elections is credited with helping to keep the Senate Democratic. And Latinos won an unprecedented voice in the
with the election of more Latino Republicans than ever before — sometimes without the support of Latino voters, who tend to put issues before ethnicity.“The vote showed that Latinos are a force to be reckoned with in both parties,” said Clarissa Martinez de Castro, director of immigration and national campaigns at the National Council of La Raza.
Latino advocates are hoping that this growing electoral clout will spur action by
and Congress to address Latino concerns. Republicans, meanwhile, are sifting the midterm results to find a strategy to attract more Latino voters to go along with their new Latino candidates.The results were history-making on many fronts: Susana Martinez of New Mexico will be the nation’s first Latina governor, Raul Labrador will be the first Latino to represent Idaho in the House, and Jaime Herrera will be the first Latina congresswoman from Washington State. In Nevada, Brian Sandoval will become that state’s first Hispanic governor. All are Republicans.
With the election of
to the Senate from Florida and the upset victory of Bill Flores over Representative Chet Edwards, a 10-term incumbent in Texas, there will now be eight Latino Republicans in the House and Senate, more than ever before. They will join 18 Latino Democrats, three fewer than before with the losses of Representatives Ciro D. Rodriguez and Solomon P. Ortiz in Texas and Representative John Salazar in Colorado.Still, Latinos over all showed a clear preference for Democrats and were credited in Nevada with saving
, the Senate majority leader, in his race against the Republican . Likewise, Senator of California and Senator of Colorado owe their victories in no small part to the aggressive get-out-the-vote campaigns by Latinos in their states, according to analysts and exit polls.Across the West, Latino volunteers knocked on doors, dialed up neighbors, stopped people on the streets.
“Sometimes one thinks that one vote doesn’t matter, and this is truer among Hispanics,” said Elena Duarte, 39, a Mexican immigrant and casino employee who rounded up supporters for Mr. Reid. “But I would tell them, ‘If you vote, and your neighbors vote, and the whole street votes, that’s hundreds of votes.’ ”
In Nevada, Latinos make up 13 percent of the electorate, and 68 percent of the ones who voted sided with Mr. Reid, according to exit polls. The support helps explain the unexpectedly comfortable five-point margin of Mr. Reid’s victory.
“Latinos may well have saved the Senate for the Democrats, and they certainly saved Harry Reid,” said Gary Segura, a political scientist at
.A poll by the Pew Hispanic Center showed Latinos demoralized in the weeks before the election, and turnout numbers are still being compiled to gauge how many cast ballots nationwide. But it is clear that Latinos in some Western states provided decisive votes.
Latinos in California strongly backed
for governor over the Republican . Senator Boxer, who won re-election over her Republican opponent, , also earned the vast majority of the Latino vote. “The Republican wave did not reach the Pacific Ocean in California,” said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, a bipartisan group.Ms. Whitman’s campaign stumbled when it emerged that she had fired a longtime housekeeper after learning she was an illegal immigrant. Latinos were dismayed that Ms. Whitman would seek the deportation of her housekeeper after saying that she had been like a family member.
Latinos saw “a huge character flaw” in Ms. Whitman as a result of the incident, said Mike García, president of the
West, based in California. They also were critical of her for taking a harder line on immigration in advertisements using English than in those using Spanish.Ms. Fiorina took an even tougher stand on illegal immigration and failed to tack to the center on the issue, as Ms. Whitman tried to do. Ms. Fiorina ended up losing by an even larger margin than Ms. Whitman, a point that Republican political strategists are likely to use as a case study in elections to come.
In Colorado, the races were full of polarized talk about immigration, as
, a former Republican congressman known for his especially tough stance on the issue, joined the governor’s race against the Democrat John Hickenlooper, who was Denver’s mayor. Both Mr. Hickenlooper and Mr. Bennet won the Latino vote by very wide margins, Mr. Segura said.Latinos “rejected the anti-Latino message that poisoned the airwaves throughout much of the campaign,” said Jessie Ulibarri, Colorado director for Mi Familia Vota Civic Participation Campaign. “When candidates use those messages it backfires on them pretty fiercely,” he said.
In Florida, Mr. Rubio split the Latino vote, but his big majority among Cuban-Americans, who are generally Republicans, helped to cement his victory, Mr. Segura said.
In Arizona, the election results were grim for Latinos as Republican candidates up and down the ballot won on platforms that emphasized their support for the state’s crackdown on illegal immigration, which a Univision-Associated Press poll conducted in May showed that 67 percent of Latinos opposed. State Senator
, who wrote the immigration law, was named president of the State Senate this week, and he vowed to promote state legislation to cancel automatic United States citizenship for the children born here of illegal immigrants.Terry Goddard, the Democrat who lost to Gov.
, who signed the immigration legislation into law, got 71 percent of the Latino vote, exit polls showed.“Clearly, what happened in Arizona was very disappointing,” said
, a Phoenix lawyer.On the national level, Latino advocates acknowledged that the climate for legislation to give legal status to illegal immigrants had grown more difficult with a new Republican-led House. “The fight for immigration reform has always been an uphill battle,” said Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. “The slope has increased somewhat.”
The victory of numerous Latino Republicans showed the crossover appeal of Latino candidates. In some cases, they won in white-majority districts without significant support from Latino voters. In the governor’s race in Nevada, only 33 percent of Latinos supported Mr. Sandoval, while 64 percent chose Rory Reid, the majority leader’s son, according to exit polls. Mr. Sandoval still won handily.
In California, one Latino Republican, Lt. Gov.
, son of a migrant farmworker, was defeated in his re-election bid after labor unions organized a major effort against him because of his support for a crackdown on illegal immigrants.“Latinos don’t vote by surname only,” Mr. Vargas said.