Democrats say candidates fail to engage Hispanic voters ‘year round’

Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-Calif.) on Wednesday said Hispanic lawmakers are struggling to reach voters in their own communities unless it’s right before an election, calling it “one of the biggest problems that we have.”  

Barragán, the first vice chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said candidates are failing to reach what is one of the most important voting blocs for Democrats, especially as the forecast for the midterms show they are likely to lose seats in November.

“We need to have voter contact, and that’s not happening. That’s not happening year round, and I think this is one of the biggest problems that we have. We basically wait for an election, and then we say two months before the election, ‘we’re going to start reaching out to these voters,’” Barragán said at The Hill’s Latina Leaders Summit.

“We have to engage Latinos and Latinas throughout the year, year round, and making sure that we’re engaging with them, having contact with them, that we’re talking in their language,” she added. 

Democrats appear to be increasingly struggling with keeping a large bloc of Hispanic voters in their favor. A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed that just 26 percent of Hispanic voters surveyed approved of President Biden’s job performance, the lowest mark of any demographic group. 

Democrats are also having a larger messaging problem while the party struggles to convince voters of a clear message, as demonstrated by Biden’s low approval ratings in the face of inflation and record high gas prices. 

One of the reasons that Hispanics are not approached as readily during election cycles as other groups has to do with many being first-time voters, according to María Teresa Kumar, who serves on the board of the political organization Voto Latino. 

Kumar said that almost 3 million Hispanic youth will turn 18 between the 2020 and 2022 elections. 

“What politicians don’t realize is that you need to speak with Latinos across generations. You have to talk about the issues that they care about, and you have to do it with respect,” Kumar said at the event. “What the parties need to do is recognize that we’re talking about the second largest group of Americans who swing elections.” 

Barragán said that consistent engagement in Hispanic communities is necessary so that representation of Hispanics can also increase across all levels of government. There are currently around 35 members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, a fraction of the 435 seats held by lawmakers in the House.

“In 2016 when I ran, I was the only new Democratic Latina elected in the House,” Barragán said. “That’s remarkable and just shows you the underrepresentation we have in Congress amongst Latinas when you take a look at the population across the country.”