Latinos are NOT a Sleeping Giant
(September, 2020) - Latino voter registration is growing at a rate six times faster than the general population. Latino voter turnout is growing at a rate five times faster than the general population. Only ill-informed experts, Latinos and non-Latinos, refer to Latinos as “the Sleeping Giant.”
What’s more, the Latino population is growing at a rate three times faster than the general population. That tells me that Latinos are not even sleeping when they go to bed. Let’s stop this “Sleeping Giant” nonsense already.
This is the 14th presidential election in which I am voting. I have seen Latino voter registration and voter turnout increase in every presidential election. Still, in every presidential election, so-called Latino and non-Latino experts refer to us as “the sleeping giant.” ¡Ya basta con esa ignorancia!
In 1982, when USHLI started registering voters in Chicago, there were about 80,000 Latinos registered to vote. Today, there are 288,000 Latinos registered to vote, and the number of Latino elected officials has increased from three to over 30, at all levels of government. There’s no Latino Sleeping Giant in Chicago!
In 2012, the so-called “sleeping giant” cast 11.2 million votes nationally. In 2016, 12.7 million Latinos voted, an increase of 1.5 million, while Black voter turnout decreased by 765,000 (the largest decline by any ethnic or racial group in 20 years).
Voter turnout among all groups historically drops in midterm elections, but Latino voter turnout increased from 6.8 million in 2014 to 11.7 million in 2018, an increase of 4.9 million voters, the largest among all ethnic/racial groups nationally!
Texas is a perfect example. In the 2018 election, Latino voter turnout reached 1.9 million, almost double over 2014. Voter turnout among young Latinos 18-32 years of age increased 500%, and two Latinas were elected to Congress! This blue wave of Latino voters helped Democrats flip 12 State House seats and a few Senate seats. In Harris County (Houston), the 3rd largest county in America, the Latino vote helped flip 17 judgeships and a Latina was elected County Judge, the highest office. This is the result of the amazing work being done with Southwest Voter Registration Education Project and several other groups that have been working diligently to register, educate, and get Latinos out to vote. There’s no Sleeping Giant in Texas!
Similarly, in Arizona, the surge in Latino voter registration and turnout flipped the US Senate seat held by Republican Martha McSally in 2018.
In Virginia, Latinas defeated several Republican incumbents who ran anti-immigrant campaigns in races for seats in the House of Delegates.
In 2018, Latino voter turnout, which nearly doubled nationally, turned conventional wisdom about midterm elections on its head.
In 2020, a record shattering and history-making 16 million Latinos may turn out to vote. That’s an increase of 3.3 million voters, enough to flip the White House and possibly a few US Senate races in major battleground states. Hopefully, any references to “the Sleeping Giant” will become a thing of the past for good, and donors will finally realize that growing the Latino vote is a very worthwhile investment.
