The United States Congress should mirror the diversity of this nation. The Republican majority doesn’t. But Democrats are continuing to forge a party and field candidates who represent “us,” the rich tapestry of people who make up the citizenry of the United States.
“We can change the direction of this country,” said Congressman Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, and chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Luján points to the campaigns of diverse Democrats running for office this year: vets, women, LBGTQ Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, African Americans, and Latinos.
Following up on my story from last Sunday about the importance of supporting organizations who are working hard to get out the Latino/Hispanic vote, one of the things discussed frequently was the fact that we as Democrats can’t expect Latinos to be super enthused about voting when they see a Congress and Senate that doesn’t reflect their diverse communities.
There are Latinx running this year who understand that, and are taking action to fire up their supporters and get new folks involved. They will be joining other Democratic members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus when they win, and are sworn in, in January, 2019. Their campaigns are bringing out young voters, and older people who have never voted.
Quite a few of those candidates are Latinas.
One of the things I realized when researching this story was that though I was aware of many Latinos running for or already in office in the New York metro area, most that I knew about, supported, and followed were Puerto Rican or Dominican. So I decided to educate myself about other campaigns— because if we truly want to see a blue wave take place in this country, we need to support candidates across the U.S. and not simply on our home turf.
My first surprise was Delaware, where I discovered two Latinas are running for the state House.
Guillermina Gonzalez recently introduced herself at a gun control rally in northern Delaware while stumping for votes.
“Hello, how are you doing?” she called out to a cheering audience. “Well, I’m here to reflect that I’m an immigrant Delawarean and an American by choice. I think that says a lot.”
The native of Mexico is a veteran corporate and nonprofit executive. And she’s fresh off a resounding victory in the Democratic primary for a vacant state House seat.
Also at the rally was another upstate candidate, Senate hopeful Laura Sturgeon. She’s a high school Spanish teacher whose parents emigrated from Argentina to the United States.
Both are running for General Assembly seats in a state that has never had a Latino woman in the Legislature.
Last year, a major national push took place to get more Latinas involved in becoming political candidates. It was detailed in an article titled “In Trump's United States, some Latinas motivated to run for office.”
Despite being the nation’s largest minority group, Hispanics are still largely underrepresented in politics; almost a fifth of the population, they made up only one percent of all elected and appointed officials in the United States last year, according to a Univision analysis conducted in October. Hispanics are less represented in public office than African Americans, who held about twice the amount of elected offices in 2010, despite the fact that they’re 12.4% of the population, compared to 17% for Latinos.
November’s elections were a milestone for the Hispanic community, with the election of seven Latinos in Congress -- all Democrats. In Nevada, Catherine Cortez Masto, the granddaughter of a Mexican immigrant, became the first Latina senator in history. Nanette Barragán was elected to the House of Representatives for California’s 44th District.
Also, former Colorado House majority leader Crisanta Duran was elected as Colorado’s speaker of the House. The elections were “hugely historic,” says Pérez, who ran for office in Arizona in 2004, when she was just 25. “When I ran there wasn’t a Catherine Cortez Masto, there wasn’t a Latina Secretary of State in Rhode Island (Nellie Gorbea), there wasn’t a Susana Martinez (the Republican Governor of New Mexico),” Pérez says. “So all of my mentors and people that got me to run were men. I didn’t have anyone to look up to. Now it’s different.”
For a detailed look at the numbers, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) has a chart.
There is clearly a big difference in party representation, as well as in gender. Take a look at the Latinos serving in the 115th Congress:
In the U.S. House of Representatives, Latino representation increased by five in the 115th Congress, bringing the total number of Latinos currently serving in the House to 34. Comprising the largest class of Latinos serving in the U.S. House of Representatives in history, the 115th Congress includes seven new Latino Members of Congress.
All of the newcomers elected to the House were Democrats:
U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-CA-24),
U.S. Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragan (D-CA-44),
U.S. Rep. Lou Correa, (D-CA-46),
U.S. Rep. Darren Soto (D-FL-9) The first Puerto Rican to represent FL in the U.S. of Representatives,
U.S. Rep. Ruben Kihuen (D-NV-4) — is not running for re-election — the current Democratic candidate is African-American Steven Horsford
U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-CA-46) The first Dominican-American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.
U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX-15)
NALEO has a webpage dedicated to Latinos (Democrats and Republicans) running for office in 2018.
When I started looking for Latinas running for office, I found this Emily’s List piece:
One reason this year is extra special: It’s the Year of the Latina. Two Latina congressional candidates, Sylvia Garcia and Veronica Escobar, have already won the Democratic nomination in safe Democratic districts, so unless something really weird happens, they’re going to Congress as the first and second Latinas elected from the Lone Star State. (If you ever think you don’t have to vote in primaries because you live in a safe blue district? Let Texas be a lesson to you. I’m looking at you, L.A. and NYC. How about a lady mayor already?)
And it’s not just Texas that’s promising: Latino Victory Project recently announced a new slate of five Latina candidates they've endorsed, including congressional candidates Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in Florida, Antoinette Sedillo Lopez and Xochitl Torres Small in New Mexico, and Virginia Madueño in California, as well as Arizona attorney general candidate January Contreras. In fact, out of the 16 candidates they’re backing in 2018, a full 10 are Latina — and there are even more Latinas running for office beyond that. Currently, Latinas are one of the most underrepresented groups in Congress. There are only 10 of them there: one in the Senate, nine in the House. There are just as many dudes named Steve serving in Congress as there are Latinas. (Don’t look it up, it’ll only depress you.)
How in God’s green melting pot did this happen? Latinas have been one of the fastest growing demographics in our rapidly diversifying country! But when you consider the fact that Texas, home to the second largest Hispanic population in America, has never elected a Latina to Congress — it starts to make more sense. This is important, because it means that if we all do our part, we could more than double that pitiful congressional number in a single year.
Here’s a link to the Latino Victory Project candidates mentioned in the article. I spent a wonderful several days reading more about the candidates and visiting their websites. I followed those I didn’t know anything about on Twitter, looked at their YouTube ads and Facebook pages, and read news articles about them.
Let’s shine a spotlight on Veronica Escobar, who is running for Congress in the 16th Congressional District in El Paso, Texas.
When Escobar threw her hat into the ring and decided she was running for Congress, this was her campaign announcement.
What hit me immediately were the visual images: the faces of Latinos young and old, faces that reflect close to 40 percent of the state’s population, a demographic that is growing each year.
I was surprised to find a detailed article about her in The New Statesman.
Blue Wave: Meet Veronica Escobar, the El Paso Democrat fighting Trump’s “racist” immigration policy
“Texas is not a red state. It’s actually a non-voting state. There’s a lot people who are already registered to vote who have chosen to stay home election after election,” she said, adding that she saw it a top priority for her and other candidates to encourage traditional non-voters to cast their ballot, and to encourage new citizens and young people to register to vote for the first time.
“I’ve been collaborating with our local Democratic party and with community leaders hundreds of miles from us in South Texas to communicate the urgency for the border … If all of us on the border turn out and vote 15 percentage points higher, then it will be the border that turns Texas blue,” Escobar said, her voice rising with emotion. “It will be the border that changes the direction of the state, and it will be a righteous victory. Because it is the border that has more at stake than any other Texas community.”
Frances Solá-Santiago just wrote this profile piece for Refinery 29 titled “Texas Has Never Sent A Latina To Congress. Veronica Escobar Is About To Change That.”
Born in El Paso, Escobar describes growing up in West Texas as a “magical” time. Her mother was born in the United States but grew up in Chihuahua, Mexico, which is just across the border from El Paso. Her father’s family, who owned a dairy farm, had been established in El Paso for over 100 years. She recalls taking day trips to Juarez as a kid, where she’d stroll the food market with her mother, while her brothers accompanied their dad to get haircuts. Juarez, says Escobar, was just an extension of El Paso. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), Escobar moved to New York City to pursue a master’s degree in English at New York University. When she returned home two years later, Escobar says El Paso was plagued with an “alarming xenophobia” she’d never witnessed before.
In 1993,
Silvestre Reyes, the country’s first Latino US Border Patrol Sector Chief, had implemented “Operation Hold the Line,” which increased the presence of Border Patrol in West Texas to reduce crime and drug trade, and proposed the construction of a border wall. Her anger toward Reyes’s rhetoric drew her to join the non-profit Border Rights Coalition as a part-time coordinator in 1994, and later volunteer on her first political campaign in 1996, supporting Reyes’ opponent in a race for the U.S. House of Representatives. Although she’d originally planned to stay in El Paso for only a year, Escobar developed a passion for activism she couldn’t resist and renounced her dream of pursuing a PhD, turning to politics instead. “I understood there was a place for me here where I could do some good and put my values to work in a way that is important a satisfying and part of something bigger,” Escobar tells Refinery29.
Well, she stepped up to participate and it looks like she and her fellow Latina candidates from Texas may become the 3 Mosqueteras from Tejas in D.C.
In order to get candidates elected, they not only need funds, they need an electorate that comes to the polls and is allowed to vote. Often, when we think of voting rights being restricted we think of African Americans and the battles for the vote in the civil rights movement, or of the current voter suppression taking place in locations like Georgia. But there is a long history of denying the vote to Latino folks as well.
If you have a little time, read “A Brief History of Latino Voting Rights Since the 1960s.”
At 58 million, Latinos – the largest minority ethnic group in the US – are powerful. With 66,000 Latinos turning 18, the voting age, every single month, that force is vast enough to transform the political balance of our local, state, and federal governments. But that potential depends on one factor: Those who are legally able to vote utilizing their right by turning out to the polls on Election Day. Suffrage wasn’t an easy right to obtain or maintain for people of color, including Latinos, many of whom had to wait a decade after the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965 to cast their ballot. Even still, our enfranchisement is under perpetual threat by increased voting restrictions that impact Black and brown populations the hardest.
There are sections on each decade, from the 1960s through 2010:
Since 2010, communities of color have seen voting restrictions increase, particularly in the form of strict photo ID requirements, like in Texas, Wisconsin and North Carolina, to early voting cutbacks, as seen in Florida, to other registration restrictions. Also, in 2013, in the case of Shelby v. Holder, the Supreme Court weakened voting rights protections by removing the requirement that some jurisdictions with a history of voting discrimination get pre-approval for voting changes, with states like Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Florida, Virginia, South Dakota, Iowa, and Indiana wasting little time enacting possibly discriminatory laws.
The article concludes with today’s reality:
A 2018 poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and The Atlantic shows how these new qualifications and the loss of protections are leading to voter suppression, with Black and Latino voters facing more barriers at the voting booth. According to poll findings, 9 percent of Latino respondents, compared to 3 percent of whites, say that they (or someone in their household) were told that they lacked the proper identification to vote in the last election. Similarly, 11 percent of Latino respondents, compared to 5 percent of whites, reported that they were incorrectly told that they weren’t listed on voter rolls. In all, the poll found that Black and Latino respondents were twice as likely, or more, to have experienced barriers as their white respondents.
Scholars point to cultural and institutional barriers that exacerbate the problems Latinas have, not only in running for office, but once they are in office as well.
Hellwege points out that Latinas are much more likely to live in multi-generational households as caretakers for other family members. For instance, Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico handles responsibilities for her sister, who has cerebral palsy. Latinas also have fewer resources, making it more difficult to take the frequent trips from Washington D.C. to their home district. These added responsibilities and pressures make the decision to run a difficult choice.
This is why Guzman, the Virginia candidate who was elected to the House of Delegates, has taken part in a new initiative between the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators (NHCSL) and Rutgers University called the Latinas Lead Initiative (LLI) to help recruit and train Latinas for office.
Frustrated by the lack of representation for Latinos in her state legislature and compelled by the election of Donald Trump, Guzman decided to run for office. However, she found it difficult to cross-fertilize ideas with other Latinas. The Latinas Lead Initiative is meant to serve as a clearinghouse of ideas on campaign strategies at the local level.
“All of the Latinas who are running for local office, we didn’t know about each other. We all had our own campaign strategies,” Guzman said. “Finding Latinas who are willing to help is important, to be there and take our success and failures. Trying to come up with a strategy. We are famous for working hard.”
No matter the challenges, Latinas are on the ballot, and their numbers will continue to grow.
What Latina campaigns are you following, supporting, working for, or voting for?