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to do in gaining credibility and
trust with the Latino community
in Nevada.
Colorado
Latinos in Colorado:
19. 7 percent of the population
8. 1 percent of the electorate
176,970 expected votes
are endorsing the notion of immigration reform for those who are
already in the U.S., even if they
are undocumented, McCain, when
he’s talking to his peers in different media, says the first thing
is to secure our border, which is
perceived by many [Latinos] as
changing his position depending
on the audience.”
Colorado’s nine electoral votes
have gone to the Democratic Party
only once in the last 10 elections,
but recent polling indicates a shift
in Obama’s favor.
If Obama can’t win the Southern states and isn’t successful in
turning Ohio blue again, his win
could really be determined by how
successful he is in engaging the
Latino community in Colorado.
It comes as no surprise, then,
why the Democrats chose to kick
off their convention in Denver
with an invocation by Polly Baca, a
former Colorado state senator and
an activist on behalf of Latinos.
But the race in Colorado is
extremely close: As of early September, McCain held a 1 percent
advantage over
Obama, according to Rasmussen
Reports.
According to a
recent article in the
Colorado Independent, McCain’s tough-on-the-border stance may hurt him in a
state that focuses so heavily on
immigration reform.
“McCain has been ambiguous about his position on immigration, and that’s where he’s
beginning to lose some of the
[Latino] vote,” says Felipe Korzenny, director for the Center for
Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University.
“While both [of the candidates]
Florida
Latinos in Florida:
20. 2 percent of the population
11. 8 percent of the electorate
1,039,786 expected votes
The most controversial state
among the four Latino battleground states in this year’s presidential election is Florida. The
2000 presidential election left a
bad taste in many voters’ mouths
when it took more than a month
to determine that George W. Bush
was the winner, and the closeness
of that race has given Florida the
reputation of being a swing state.
Florida has 27 electoral votes
and the projected Latino vote is
Latino vote in Florida propelled propelled
him to Super Tuesday and he
became the presumptive leader
and then went on to win.”
There are 1. 5 million Latinos
in Miami-Dade county alone, and
in the Orlando metro area, the
Latino population has ballooned
by nearly 900 percent since 1980.
Cuban Americans in South Florida
historically have been considered
Republican, but even that is
now changing.
“Cubans [in South Florida]
aren’t a monolithic vote anymore,”
says Ramos. “We see that the
younger generation of Cubans—
the ones who grew up here and
went to school here—are beginning to shift their views around
Cuba and how the United States
needs to deal with that situation.
Therefore, the views and the voting
patterns may be changing.”
Like the other states mentioned, the race to win Florida is a
close one, but as of early September, the Sunshine State favored
McCain 48 percent to 46 percent
for Obama.
Nearly half of Latino voters said they
had a family member or close friend serving
in Iraq or Afghanistan.
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more than 1 million. To suggest
that Florida is an important
state to win would be a serious
understatement.
“We see that it’s already had a
very specific impact on the primary
elections,” says Ramos. “The
Latino vote specifically drove John
McCain in Florida to a huge win
the week before Super Tuesday. He
got 53 percent of the Cuban vote
and 54 percent of the non-Cuban
Latino vote in Florida. So the
The Issues
Despite the
importance of
immigration
in this year’s
election, issues
such as education, cost of living,
jobs and healthcare rate higher on
Latinos’ list of priorities, according
to a recent study done by the Pew
Hispanic Center.
“The economy and jobs appear
to be a top issue for Latino voters
who voted in the Democratic primaries,” says Lopez. “But it is also
the top issue for African Americans, and it’s also the top issue for
whites, so I don’t think the Latino
issues are necessarily all that differ-
