The power and persistence of Latino voters

In 1975, Vilma Martinez, then president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), testified before Congress in support of extending the Voting Rights Act protections to Latinos. Individual lawsuits, she argued, couldn’t keep pace with the numerous and widespread abuses aimed at keeping Latinos away from the ballot box.

“It would be like attempting to empty the sea with a sand pail,” she said in her testimony.

More than half a century later, this metaphor has taken on new meaning. The sea she described was, at the time, the vastness of the fight itself. But following decades of progress in Latino communities growing, organizing and building power in the face of barriers meant to hold them back, Latino voters have become their own sea: a swelling force in American democracy that can no longer be overlooked.

Today, at least 36 million Latino voters are eligible to vote in the 2026 midterm elections — up from 32.3 million in 2020 — and accounting for roughly half of all growth in the eligible voter population nationwide over that period. In many states, Latino voters are now a decisive voting population influencing electoral outcomes.

Because of this collective power, the attacks on Latinos have grown more coordinated and more targeted than at any other point in recent history: voter roll purges, proof-of-citizenship requirements, restriction of access to mail-in ballots, redistricting maps redrawn to dilute multiracial and multiethnic political power, and immigration enforcement that makes people fearful of showing up to polling places.

The tactics are varied, but they drive a common anti-democratic cause: making people question whether their participation is worth the risk, or whether their voices will even be protected once they use it.

Throughout 2025 and early 2026, UnidosUS commissioned polling and convened focus groups with Latino voters across the country to better understand the tension between the power they have built, the pressures they are facing, and the reasons that inspire them to participate in elections and make their voices heard.

What we found is a community that is equally motivated and fearful. Data shows that 76% of Latino voters are certain or almost certain to vote. But Latino confidence that elections are free and fair dropped 11 percentage points in a single month after federal requests for state voter rolls. Nearly 1 in 5 Latinos say they may not vote in November due to distrust that their ballot will be counted correctly.

Yet, in our focus groups, participants repeatedly told each other the same thing, unprompted: “You vote for community, for the people who can’t.”

Latino voters understand what is at stake for their families, their communities and the people they love who cannot vote themselves. These two realities — fear and motivation — are coexisting in Latino communities across the country. What is taking shape is a political consciousness forged by a sense of vulnerability and a shared determination to find a pathway forward.

UnidosUS’s new voter messaging guide, Mobilizing Latino Voters in 2026, draws on our polling research and focus groups to share what we have found: who Latino voters trust, which messaging actually works, how Latinos understand and exercise their civil rights, and what organizations can do right now to help eligible voters participate safely and confidently.

Our vision is to help people keep moving forward with clear understanding of the power they hold, so that fear does not become another barrier to exercising the rights Latino communities have spent generations building.