Transcript 0:02 Hey, it's Julio Ricardo Varela of the Latino Newsletter Podcast, and this election season we are partnering with New England Public Media to produce stories for the Latino Election Project, which is covering the election and Latinos in Western Massachusetts. 0:19 So you're gonna get some extra stories on your podcast feed. And you know, I worked with these amazing high school student journalists, and story one talks about the Latino vote in Western Massachusetts. Enjoy. 0:31 In the NEPM studio with me, our Latino Election Project student producers, Ian Berger, Halima Mohammed, and Ivani Santos. How y'all doing? Great. Awesome. I'm doing amazing. Ivani, what are we exploring? 0:45 We are taking a look at what the Latino vote is like here in Western Massachusetts. Halima, what are some of our big questions? What is the Latino vote? What are the misconceptions? What are the trends? 0:57 What do they think about both political parties? Ian, what data do we have to start all this? According to Pew Research, there are 36.2 million eligible Latino voters in 2024. 1:11 In Massachusetts, about 9% of all 2024 eligible voters are Latino. And one study from UMass Boston said that from 2000 to 2020, the number of Latinos in Massachusetts voting in presidential elections increased by 345%. 1:26 As of 2020, the same study noted there were 271,000 registered Latino voters here in the state. 1:34 We connected with Clarissa Martinez de Castro of UnidosUS, one of the country's top Latino civil rights organizations, to break down the data trend a bit more. 1:44 Martinez de Castro is the vice president of the Latino Vote Initiative. 1:48 She says that in their latest surveys of 3,000 Latinos across the country, the community is showing more political independence and not aligning itself as much to Democrats and Republicans. 2:00 Martinez de Castro says this is especially true for younger Latinos. There's been trends showing that among younger voters there's a higher incidence of being independent, right? There's a lot of reasons for that. 2:14 Folks don't like labels. There's frustration with the state of our politics and the ability of legislators to make progress on the solutions. And so sometimes people, out of that frustration, say, "You know what? 2:29 Neither. Neither or both, or I'm gonna think about doing something differently." Yet Martinez de Castro is not pessimistic about these findings. In fact, quite the opposite. 2:41 If I'm an elected official and I see a significant pool of voters who are independent or indecisive, that should translate into opportunity. 2:52 And so another factor we are seeing is that outreach to Hispanic voters has been traditionally low, and amazingly, considering the razor-thin margins that we're seeing in numerous states, remains low. 3:09 What about Latinos in Western Massachusetts? Do these national trends of political independence and lack of outreach apply? Here's Joshua Garcia, the mayor of Holyoke. 3:20 In 2021, Garcia was elected the first Latino mayor in the history of the city, which now has a Latino population of 52%. 3:29 Garcia, who is of Puerto Rican descent, says Latinos in Western Massachusetts aren't voting in large numbers. For the 2020 election, for example, Holyoke's 59% turnout was one of the lowest in the state. 3:42 Voter turnout is extremely low. In the Latino community, it's even much lower. And here in the city of Holyoke, in the poorest neighborhoods of our city, the poorest sectors and wards are predominantly heavy Latino. 3:58 And when I assess the voter turnout on a local level, voter turnout is just extremely low in our poorer neighborhoods, and these are where all of our Latinos live. 4:08 Springfield City Councilor José Delgado thinks part of the issue is because more and more Latino voters are becoming independent, to Martinez de Castro's point. They're not necessarily of one party or the other. 4:21 I would say historically you would find that folks would gravitate towards the Democratic Party, right? The party that's supposed to be for the people, the underrepresented. 4:30 But what you're finding, at least in my experience, is as folks are first-generation Latinos, then they get a job, they work their way, they get an education, they're raising families, they become middle class. 4:44 I think once you get to that point, I think folks are starting to think for themselves. That national conversation is true. It's happening here in Springfield. 4:53 While I still think we are very heavily Democratic, I do feel that there are folks that are looking at their options. 5:00 While the numbers are there, with these low turnouts, will it ever mean greater electoral power for Latinos in the area? 5:07 Gladis Lebrón Martínez is a political veteran who was first elected as a Holyoke School Committee member in 2003 and later went on to serve as a city councilor. 5:18 She now works with Alianza, a domestic violence support organization. She believes electoral power is attainable for Latinos, but you have to do the work. 5:29 I'm a grandmother of nine children, three, three grandkids, and I want the best for them. So when you use family sometimes with some individuals, 5:39 it, it, it, it sinks in the purpose and the reason why you wanna vote or do you wanna continue to live the same way. 5:45 I think it's that people are starting to learn the reasons why when we put our work in it, that we go out there and really do these door-knocking, get to know people, not necessarily only when you run, but helping people where they're at and when they need it so that they see your true value of, of service. 6:04 Helping people where they're at. So team, anything surprise you that you heard? Ian? It really surprised me how despite the large number of Latino registered voters in Western Mass, 6:21 there wasn't a super large voter turnout. Ivani? Considering how this election is something we haven't really seen before- Yeah... 6:30 and there's more representation, it's interesting how voter turnout was low when you would think that people would wanna vote for someone that looks like them. Halima? It really shocked me. 6:41 I would expect if someone's running for a political position, they wanna appeal to both parties. 6:48 A lot to consider as we explore other topics for this project, from voting obstacles to newly registered young Latino voters. For NEPM News and the Latino Newsletter, I'm Julio Ricardo Varela. And I'm Ian Berger. 7:03 And I'm Halima Mohammed. And I'm Ivani Santos.
