TeleSur ~ January 29, 2016
As potential presidential candidates hope to become elected the country’s 45th president, strategists from both political parties are seeking support from Latino voters, who will make up 13 percent of all eligible voters in 2016, a 2 percent increase from 2012.
With the next general elections less than a year away, it is important to examine the influence the Latino demographic will have on the outcome of the Nov. 8 presidential race.
The Latino electorate is growing rapidly and completely transforming the U.S. political landscape. During the 2012 elections, the Latino vote was a deciding factor in several key battleground states, according to research carried out by the Seattle-based polling agency Latino Decisions.
Looking ahead to 2016 elections, the 14 battleground states include Florida, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Iowa, Georgia, New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, and Michigan.
In order to win the elections, the Republican Party nominee must obtain between 42 and 47 percent of the Latino vote in battleground states in 2016—nearly twice the share that Mitt Romney captured in 2012, according to Latino Decisions.
While Latino voters have historically given their support to Democratic lawmakers, Latino Decisions recorded sharp declines in support for Democratic House and Senate candidates in 2014 when compared to 2012, reflecting declining levels of support towards Democratic lawmakers.
The election of the country’s first African-American president generated high expectations in the Latino community about the possibilities of more responsive national policies. However, as President Obama wraps up his final year in the White House, there has been disappointment among Latino voters regarding his legacy and commitment towards the Latino electoral base.
Professor of Chicano and Latino Studies at the California State University system, Armando Vazquez-Ramos, warns that Obama and the Democratic Party’s leadership cannot be trusted, especially in the area of immigration and economic policy.
“I am very disillusioned and critical of the Obama administration because of his deportation policies. During this year’s presidential elections, none of the democratic candidates have provided concrete proposals for putting an end to Obama’s current deportation strategy,” Armando Vazquez-Ramos told TeleSur.
Since coming to office in 2009, Obama’s government has deported more than 2.5 million people — up 23 percent from the President George W. Bush years.
On Christmas Day of last year, President Obama announced the decision to begin mass deportations following a court ruling in the U.S. that ordered the Department of Homeland Security to begin releasing families housed in detention centers.
The decision to raid homes in order to conduct deportations, unprecedented in modern U.S. history, is proving to be highly controversial.
“These are racist policies. We (Latinos) are stumped because our national leadership has failed to criticize the Obama administration’s policy of racialized deportations of Latinos,” Vazquez-Ramos stated.
Meanwhile, Latinos, like many people from the United States have become increasingly worried about economic insecurity.
Latinos are concentrated in industries dominated by low-wage jobs, and about two in three (67 percent) Latinos reported that they did not earn enough to meet their basic expenses in 2014, according the National Council of La Raza.
As wages stagnate, Latino advocacy groups are calling on presidential candidates to promote policies that help low-income individuals keep more of their wages.
During his interview with TeleSur, Professor Vazquez-Ramos accused the Democratic party of not “making significant policy commitments” towards improving the economic conditions of working class Latinos.
“Especially towards the undocumented population.” He said, adding, “In large part, because they are ineligible for federally funded programs such as Obamacare or minimum wage salary increases,” Vazquez-Ramos stated.
Obama’s current economic and deportations polices, along with his failure to pass a comprehensive immigration reform early in his administration, are lingering grievances for Latino voters.
The question for the 2016 election is whether this Latino resentment towards Obama will carry over to the Democratic Party and its next candidate for president.
