The growing U.S. Latino community is becoming a force to be reckoned with and nowhere is this more evident than this year's presidential election. Of the 31 million Latinos in this country, 75% live in five of the states with the largest electoral votes: Texas,California, New York, Illinois, and Florida. Both presidential frontrunners are fluent in Spanish, leading some to speculate that this will be the first bilingual presidential campaign. But it will take more than sound bytes in Spanish to win over the Latino vote.
Traditionally, most U.S. Latinos (with the exception of Cuban-Americans) vote Democrat. In 1996 over 70% of the Hispanic community voted for President Clinton and Al Gore hopes to carry over this support for his election. After a 1999 poll by Spanish-language network Univision, showing the 66% of Latinos would vote for a Democratic candidate if the election were held that day, Loretta Sanchez, the General Co-Chair for the Democratic National Committee stated that the results "prove that we have made Latino issues an integral part of our Party's platform."
However, the Republican party is also making a special effort to reach out to Hispanics this year, hoping to capture most of the undecided vote. George W. Bush, the current Republican frontrunner has received much support from the Hispanic community during his term as Texas governor. In a meeting with Latino leaders in Iowa, he opposed English-only laws and supported increased trade with Mexico and a "humane" border policy. This week Bush plans to address the Latino community in a historic Spanish-language town hall meeting broadcast on Univision flagship station,KMEX-TV.
Meanwhile, nonpartisan groups are trying to mobilize the Latino community to register to vote. In an initiative sponsored by multiple companies including Univision, Telemundo, AT& T and StarMedia Network, Latino Vote 2000 hopes to educate Hispanics on the issues and encourage them to register to vote. A more regional grassroots effort is the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.
It's still way too early to call the election since the final candidates have not been decided and their positions have yet to be clarified on the issues. Some potential hot-button issues for Latinos: