Ohio Gov. John Kasich Enters White House Bid: How Latinos Have Fared in Ohio

Latin Post

By Michael Oleaga

July 21, 2015

Ohio Gov. John Kasich Enters White House Bid: How Latinos Have Fared in Ohio 

Ohio Gov. John Kasich has officially entered the Republican presidential race, but how have Ohioan Latinos fared within the swing state?

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2013, Ohio's Latino population was only 3.4 percent, considerably lower than the national 17.4 percent. The largest group was whites, who comprised 80.5 percent of Ohio's population, followed by blacks with 12.5 percent. But as the Pew Research Center indicates, most Ohio Latinos are Mexican (53 percent) than non-Mexican (47 percent). But regardless of history, Ohio Latinos are considerably young with a median age of 25 years old, younger than the 39.3 years of the average Ohioan.

Kasich, who has been Ohio's governor since 2011 but whose political history includes congressman for Ohio's 12th Congressional District between 1983 and 2001, witnessed the Latino population leading the state's growth. As The Columbus Dispatch reported in 2014, Latinos have driven Ohio's population growth in all but one of the state's 88 counties. The report noted the Latino population has grown since 2010 while the non-Hispanic rate declined. The population growth, however, are due to U.S. births not immigration.

"The Hispanic growth rate is one that doesn't make Ohio unique. It's matching what's happening nationwide," said Mark Hugo Lopez, the director of Hispanic research at the Pew Research Center, via The Columbus Dispatch. "I think what's happening is there are probably job opportunities, or something about family and internal migration."

     

Since 1980, the Latino population tripled, while it also grew by 76 percent since 2000.

Based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for June 2015, the overall Ohio unemployment rate is 5.2 percent. But with its 3.4 percent Latino population rate, an average of 5.9 percent of Latinos were unemployed in 2014.

The Census Bureau noted 1.1 percent of Ohio's business firms are Latino-owned firms, down from the national average of 8.3 percent.

John Kasich, governor of Ohio, gestures while arriving to announce he will seek the 2016 Republican presidential nomination in Columbus, Ohio, U.S., on Tuesday, July 21, 2015. Kasich, seeking to emerge from a crowded Republican presidential field as a practical and compassionate leader from a must-win swing state, is joins 15 other Republicans who have declared their candidacies.

The average Ohio Latinos' income is significantly lower than the median Ohio household, with $38,000 vs. $48,000. According to the Ohio Development Services Agency, the lower income level is the result of immigration, noting, "The median household income for immigrants, of which Mexicans comprise the majority of recent arrivals, is near $35,900. Immigrants from other Central America countries tend to have a higher income with a median income of $38,100."

More than a quarter of Latinos live below the poverty line (27 percent), which includes 56 percent of households with children younger than five years old.

During the 2013-2014 academic year, more than 75,000 Latino students were enrolled in Ohio's public schools, but the educational attainment level has lagged compared to the rest of the state.

"Nearly a quarter of Hispanic Ohioans have obtained a post-secondary degree compared to 34 percent for Ohioans as a whole," an Ohio Development Services Agency report noted. "Correspondingly, 16 percent of Hispanics have less than a 9th grade education compared to 3 percent for the state. The educational attainment of recent Hispanic adult immigrants tends to be lower than the educational attainment of all Ohioans."

In regards to health care, 25 percent of Latinos have health insurance, based on Pew Research Center's 2011 data. Ohio has not adopted the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In 2010, Ohio -- and 23 other states -- joined Florida's lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the individual mandate and Medicaid expansion included in the ACA. Ohioans, regardless of ethnicity, were allowed to enroll to the federal health insurance marketplace Healthcare.gov. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) noted 37,309 Latinos have received health services in Ohio.

Ohio is also among the 26 states, led by Texas, suing the federal government from implementing President Barack Obama's 2014 executive actions, which expanded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and created the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) programs.

As Latin Post reported in June, according to the Cincinnati Examiner, the Kasich administration stated it was the Ohio attorney general who sued the Obama administration rather than the governor's office.

"The attorney general doesn't need our blessing to sue," said Kasich spokesperson Rob Nichols. "What they asked to do cannot be done constitutionally, but we took the time to have our attorney go out and meet several times with them."

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