Both parties have work to do to truly engage Latino voters and bring solutions

As a nonprofit, nonpartisan Latino civil rights and advocacy organization, at UnidosUS we always say that our candidate is the Latino voter. And this year it is clear again that Hispanic voters—who are the second-largest group of voting-age Americans—showed up to the polls in a big way.

“Hispanic voters affirmed their critical role in shaping the country’s political landscape both as voters and as candidates. We are thrilled to see that as many as seven more Latinos and Latinas could be joining Congress and dozens more winning seats at the state and local level. With more Latino representation, we hope to see greater action on addressing issues that are priorities for the Hispanic community and the majority of their fellow Americans,” said Clarissa Martinez De Castro, Vice President of the UnidosUS Latino Vote Initiative.

The results also showed that both parties still need to do more to meaningfully engage Latinos and show they can bring about solutions.

Clarissa added: “Democrats have ample room to solidify and expand Hispanic support, but as we have said before, they must engage these voters earlier and more deeply and strengthen their economic message. And for Republicans to sustain or increase their support among the Latino electorate, they will need to pay attention to the fact that their overall platform is radically out of step with these voters’ priorities in most areas, including abortion, gun violence, health care affordability, and immigration.”

This was the message Clarissa echoed last night when she was part Telemundo’s Spanish-language elections coverage. See the clip below and read on for the English translation.

“Democratic politicians had two big factors against them. One is that historically the party that is in the White House loses many seats in Congress. And second is the issue of inflation, an issue in which many voters favored Republican candidates. The GOP gains that we have seen are capitalizing on those factors. But we know that many of the candidates that they ran in different places affected them negatively. And polls show that the GOP’s policies—outside of the economy—are out of sync with the views not only of Latino voters but of nearly all voters when it comes to the issues of health care, immigration, abortion, and gun violence.”