Every time election season comes around,
the term, Latino vote comes into play.
But if the past few elections
have taught us anything,
it's that the Latino vote cannot be defined.
And making up about 1/4 of
the population in our area,
Latino voters hold a lot of power.
So I'm joined by Doctor Christina
Flores Victor, who teaches political
science at Sacramento State.
Thank you so much for being
here one on election night.
Of course. Of course.
So some people say that
there is no Latino vote,
just Latino voters.
Can you talk a little bit about that?
Yeah, I think that's absolutely true.
Latinos as a group are incredibly
heterogeneous group of individuals, right.
They have different experiences.
They potentially come from different places,
different religion, different culture,
different languages,
different generational status.
They settle in different areas
in the US and all of those things
impact their political beliefs,
their political preferences,
whether or not they want to engage civically.
And so it's it's this pan.
Ethnic kind of identifier for the group,
but individually they have such kind
of different references for politics.
So it's it does a little bit of a
disservice to the group to kind of expect
them to behave or to vote as a bloc,
right. And in our outreach
in the Latino community,
we're constantly asked why
don't the candidates come to us?
I mean how would you answer that?
Well, one that's true even in
national surveys. I think a week ago,
a poll done recently said that up to 50%
of Latino voters say that not a single
candidate or party or anyone had reached
out to them during this entire yes.
50% wow. And so I mean that's a failure
on a couple of different levels.
Why don't they reach out?
You know, campaigns and candidates have
finite resources and so they tend to
target who they think is going to be the
most likely voter who will turn out.
So it's a little bit of a self
fulfilling cycle, right?
They don't reach out to these voters,
then they potentially don't turn out to
vote and they don't reach out to them again.
And so it can be a little bit of a.
It's a bit of a cycle, right?
You think Latino voters are?
Undervalued. Absolutely.
I think that it's a little bit
taken for granted that potentially
they would vote for one party.
They do tend to favor the Democratic
Party anywhere from 80 to 60%.
They tend to break in favour
of the Democratic Party.
So I think maybe people take for
granted that if they do turn out,
they might vote a certain way.
And I think that.
Maybe when people think of maybe
they don't know how to reach out
to those voters or maybe they
haven't been successful in the past,
I mean, I think there's a lot
of issues potentially.
So what should outreach look like?
And really what should candidates be doing,
you know, on that ground level?
To really reach those voters, one,
it needs to start before just
the election season, right?
So that work has to be done
in district year round,
not just before the primaries or not just
before general elections, legitimate.
Work means doing things in language, right?
Having bilingual kind of
people who do outreach.
It means translating your
resources on the voter guide.
There are candidates who have
statements that are not even
offered in English and in Spanish.
It's a very simple thing to do,
offering your website, having events
at places where Latinos go right,
where they see this as a place that
they feel comfortable and familiar,
having endorsements from Latino community
organizations who actually work with.
People in the community that they trust.
I mean, there's a lot of things
that people could be doing.
But aren't.
Yeah. And how do you think that
the relationship does stay open?
Like you said, it's not just when
elections are coming or they're here,
you know, how do you keep that
relationship going as a candidate?
The work has to
be done in the district at all times, right?
Thinking about what issues do
Latino voters care about, you know,
and engaging with them on those issues.
Latino voters are more, they care about
more than just immigration, right.
They care about the same issues that
other people in the district care about.
So kind of that year round engagement,
the kind of very.
Bilingual, bicultural engagement.
Perhaps always
being in the Community,
like always being in the Community
and something that parties
could do. Maybe not individual
candidates, but parties.
I'm so sorry. Sorry, Doctor,
we have to head out right now.
I want to apologize. Thank you.