by Rachel Spacek
Merci Vargas and Araceli Gomez are both 17 and the children of Mexican immigrants. Growing up, they watched as their parents, attempting to gain U.S. citizenship, were not able to vote.
“My parents would tell us growing up that we needed to start paying attention to politics so we can vote for them and for the other people who can’t vote,” Gomez said.
As the nation’s largest racial minority, Latino voters have played a crucial role so far in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. In Nevada, where one-third of voters were Latino or black, the candidates held rallies and meetings with local leaders to attempt to gain popularity in the community.
During a rally in Nevada, the Washington Post reported Democratic hopeful Joe Biden said, “We’re moving into an especially important phase because up until now, we haven’t heard from the most committed constituency of the Democratic Party — the African American community — and the fastest-growing segment of the society — the Latino community.”
In Idaho, 8.1% of the eligible voter population is Latino — or 101,000 out of a total 1,254,000 eligible voters, the Pew Research Center reported in January. In terms of overall population numbers, Latinos make up 12.7% of the state’s residents.
The largest age group of Latinos in Idaho is 24 and younger.
“We are at the cusp of changes,” said Margie Gonzalez, executive director for the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs.
Both Vargas and Gomez agree, saying they’ve seen Latino youth become more active in local politics in recent years.
Vargas serves as the state president for the Future Hispanic Leaders of America, an organization in schools across southern Idaho that ensures Latino youth succeed beyond high school; it also promotes Latino cultural pride and civic engagement. Gomez is the vice president.
Vargas attended a conference last summer sponsored by Future Hispanic Leaders of America and UnidosUS, where she met some Democratic presidential candidates and learned about voting and civic engagement.
“Before the conference, I didn’t know anything about voting,” Vargas said. “My older siblings convinced me that my vote didn’t really count, since this is a largely Republican-voting state. But after this last conference, I realized my vote really matters, and it can change anything.”
Jennifer Martinez, an organizer with the Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence, has experience running for public office and doing outreach in the Latino community.
“There are lots of young activists way more aware of issues and who are ready to affect change in our state,” Martinez said. “I think we will see (a shift) sooner rather than later.”
Martinez ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives against Congressman Mike Simpson in 2016.
The Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs is a governmental organization that works with government agencies and the Latino community on how best to serve Latino Idahoans. The agency travels across the state to visit with Latino communities and address some of the challenges they face.
Juan Saldaña, community resources development specialist with the commission, said during meetings with Latino families, parents will remain silent about their challenges, but their children stand up and voice concerns about issues facing their communities.
‘We care about everything’
As presidential hopefuls vie for the Latino vote, Martinez said one of the biggest mistakes they can make is thinking Latinos are of one mind.
“We care about everything,” Martinez said. “The biggest mistake people make in outreach is they think we are a monolith, but that is because they haven’t taken the time to realize that we come from lots of different countries and we have different experiences. We are as nuanced as any other community.”
Vargas said some of her biggest concerns are around health care, especially when she thinks of the older generation of Latinos and her family. She worries that access to health care services is too limited.
She also cares about the environment.
As the daughters of immigrants, Vargas and Gomez said immigration is important to them. Gomez said her family is concerned about the limited options to become a legal permanent resident in the U.S.
Vargas, who said she has lots of friends using the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, is concerned with the future of that program.
“They are students who are trying to do the best for their families,” Vargas said.
Latino voter turnout
The Pew Research Center reported Latinos will likely be the nation’s largest racial or ethnic minority in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. There are 32 million Latinos projected to be eligible to vote, about 3.3% of all eligible voters.
Gabe Osterhout, research associate with the Idaho Policy Institute at Boise State University, said voter turnout for Latinos nationally jumped 13 percentage points in the 2018 midterm elections when compared to the midterm elections in 2014.
Voting trends for Idaho Latinos are difficult to follow since there is no exit polling in the state that identifies voter ethnicity, he said.
Osterhout did attempt to estimate Idaho Latino voting behavior by comparing the overall voter turnout between Idaho counties where Latinos comprise a higher share of the population with other counties.
Osterhout studied eight Idaho counties where Latinos make up at least one quarter of the population — Clark, Minidoka, Power, Jerome, Lincoln, Gooding, Cassia and Owyhee. (Census data shows Canyon County’s population is 25% Latino, but that was not included in Osterhout’s analysis.)
“A quick look at numbers from prior elections suggests that 2018 was the first election in several years that most of those eight counties underperformed the rest of the state in terms of turnout,” Osterhout said in an email. “I’m still digging deeper into the data to understand why that’s the case.”
The turnout calculation is not perfect, Osterhout said, but it’s an attempt to see what Latino voter turnout looks like.
Latinos face more barriers to voting than many other communities do, Martinez said.
“Why would folks turn out?” Martinez said. “Counties don’t have interpreters on-site if you need something in Spanish. My mom calls me every time she goes to vote in Gooding County because there is no one to help her figure stuff out and who can walk her through the process.”
In the 2018 election, Lincoln County became the first county in Idaho to offer Spanish-language ballots. Osterhout, who studied turnout in that election, found that it actually decreased.
“That may be the result of implementation issues or a lack of awareness among citizens that voting in Spanish was even an option,” he said.
He said academic research suggests voter turnout increases when citizens are able to vote in their first language.
Martinez said a lot of these barriers fall on the candidates running for office to work on.
“I have seen some people doing outreach, but there is not enough investment in time and money to build up relationships with local leaders and business owners,” Martinez said. “Instead, you see last-minute efforts from people who are trying to engage in Spanish or hire one Latinx organizer who is trying to carry a whole load. I think people have good intentions and they are not committing the recourse.”
She said the Latino vote is “up for grabs” for either political party.
“I think anyone who makes any effort is bound to succeed at this point,” Martinez said.
Rachel Spacek is the Latino Affairs and Canyon County reporter for the Idaho Press. You can reach her at rspacek@idahopress.com. Follow her on twitter @RachelSpacek.
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