Courting Latino Voters: Which Candidate has the Edge

September 19, 2024

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As the presidential race reaches the home stretch, recent polls show Vice President Kamala Harris, the child of immigrants, leading her Republican opponent among Latino American voters-but by smaller margins than past Democratic candidates.

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump, who has made harsh immigration rhetoric and policies a hallmark of his campaign, has actually increased his share of the Latino electorate since 2016-and was tied with then-candidate President Joe Biden in July.

What's wrong with this picture?

Maybe nothing, according to Elizabeth Vaquera, director of the Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute and associate professor of sociology and public policy and public administration at the George Washington University's Columbian College of Arts and Sciences.

Instead, it may be an accurate portrait of the complexities of Latino voters.

Too often, she said, candidates approach the 36 million Latino Americans eligible to vote this year as a niche voting bloc that places immigration above all other issues-instead of as nuanced swing voters who have the same mix of priorities as other groups.

During Latin Heritage Celebration month, Vaquera spoke with GW Today about the issues that concern Latino voters-and whether both sides are doing enough to address them.

Q: It seems certain that Latino voters will play a major role in electing the next president. From your standpoint, what do the candidates get wrong about Latino voters?

A: It comes down to how they speak to Latinos living in the United States. You cannot speak to all Latino Americans in the same way. They are a very diverse population. The communities in which they live are different. It's not the same being, say, a Salvadoran American living in Fairfax County, Virginia, as a Mexican American living in Los Angeles County, California.

And that means that the policies [candidates] talk about, how they talk to us, even what language or dialect they use has to vary. Different countries use different words to say the same things. Very rarely do you see politicians considering those nuances in language. That makes it harder for them to connect.

Q: When it comes to appealing to Latino voters, candidates traditionally focus most of their attention on immigration. Is that a poor strategy?

A: For Latino voters, it's not all about immigration. The majority of Latinos in the United States are not even immigrants themselves.

Immigration might be a key issue for some-particularly those that are more directly impacted by it. But it's not the only issue. They are worried about the same issues as everybody else. The economy is always at the top of their concerns. Jobs, education and health care are all very important to them. Abortion has become a singular issue for some in the Latino community.

And young voters have their own issues. Another thing politicians get wrong is not taking young Latino voters into consideration. We have a powerful population of young voters that is growing by the minute. They are worried about things like college expenses, pathways to meaningful employment and about the climate! They don't see themselves reflected in the language, the arguments or the policies being put forward by either campaign. They might say. "Why should I even vote if those people do not do anything or say anything that reflects me?"

Q: Is there any effective outreach you've seen from either campaign?

A: Now that they are realizing that the outcomes of some states are at stake, we are seeing some change in their messaging-the way they speak and the issues they talk about-to reach out to Latinos voters.

The Harris campaign launched a bilingual WhatsApp channel for the Latino community. Having a platform that is used by a significant portion of the Latino community is a good way to tailor campaign strategies to fit the needs of Latino voters and meet them where they are at.

Also, it's very easy to take any community for granted when you don't have people of that community at the table. In this case, one of the effective things that the Harris campaign did was to keep Julie Chávez Rodriguez as campaign manager when President Biden stepped aside. As a Mexican American woman, she is able to strategize around the Latino community.

Q: How about the Trump campaign? Despite his past policies and his derogatory remarks toward immigrants, he has relative strengths among some Latino voters. Why?

A: Some of it has to do with the economy and how he presents that issue. A strong economy and low unemployment rates are very important to Latinos, and he is generally favored on economic issues.

It also has a lot to do with the more traditional values that Trump and the Republican Party embrace-abortion in particular. It is also true that he speaks to some parts of the Latino population who see immigration as a problem.

Somehow, Trump has become the approachable candidate. The simple language that he uses- the way he has no restraint in how he talks-clicks with certain sectors among Latinos and across the United States.

Q: If you were advising the campaigns on how to connect with Latino American voters, what would you tell them?

A: Be approachable. Use language that speaks to them. If you use too many statistics and too many numbers, people disconnect with what you are saying. I'm a sociologist. I love numbers. I love data. But that doesn't typically change hearts. You need to change people's hearts in order to change their behavior. So come with stories that connect with their personal experiences. Come with words that connect with people, that show how policies and changes will affect their everyday lives.

Utilize the Spanish-speaking media-like Univision and Telemundo, which are channels that are turned on in almost every Latino household.

Focus on policy-instead of attacking the other candidate.

And most importantly, acknowledge that the Latino population is becoming more diverse in the United States. It was diverse already-and it's only moving more in that direction. The experiences across communities tend to be very different. You have to speak to them differently.