Hispanic Voters Hold Texas Trump Card

FORTH WORTH, TX (By David Sedeño, Star-Telegram) February 10, 2008 — For Carlos De Anda of Fort Worth and for millions of other Hispanic voters across the country, this presidential election season is giving them a reason to truly believe and embrace the grassroots adage: Su voto es su voz.

As voters nationwide stream into primaries and caucuses, you can sense the Hispanic vote actually will have an impact this year.

"It has regenerated lots of interest in people voting, and it's the first time in a long time there has been this much energy," De Anda said. "We will have the opportunity to vote for a first woman or a first black, but that doesn't mean we will get them. Politics are unpredictable, and that is why this is exciting."

According to a Pew Hispanic Center survey last year, 57 percent of Hispanic registered voters consider themselves Democrats. Republicans had made inroads in the past two decades, but the immigration debate stalemate in Congress and the Iraq war eroded Hispanic support for them.

But Sen. John McCain, the GOP front-runner, will lean heavily on whatever Hispanic Republican support he can muster, bolstered by his attempt to champion a comprehensive immigration measure in the last session.

Hispanics make up about 9 percent of eligible voters, the Pew Hispanic Center estimates, but because they are concentrated in crucial states, their impact could be pivotal.

"The Hispanic vote was looked at as the 'Sleeping Giant' and a promising voting bloc in the '70s, '80s and '90s, but it didn't materialize," said Henry Flores, a political science professor and dean of the Graduate School at St. Mary's University in San Antonio.

"That vote truly is beginning to materialize now and, this year, Hispanics will have a say as to who the nominee will be for the Democratic Party and may be able to provide a swing vote in the presidential election in closely contested races in states where they hold a big part of the population," he said.

Although Sen. Barack Obama continues to fire up the youths across the country, Hispanic youth — a big bloc of the immigration demonstrators during the past several years — are a little different.

Flores said exit polls in Southern California provide a snapshot of how Hispanic youths across the country will vote.

"When you get down to who they vote for, it has a lot to do with the familial structure," he said.

"Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, developed the networks and inroads in Southern California, and they worked the campaign very heavily for Sen. Hillary Clinton," Flores said. "What's interesting is the youth went with their families for Clinton and did not go with the Hispanic youth that went with Obama.

"I don't think it's going to be any different in Texas."

Clinton will be riding on the coattails of her husband and the outreach efforts in South Texas and those of key Hispanics loyal to Bill — particularly Henry Cisneros, the former San Antonio mayor and former U.S. secretary of housing and urban development.

Add to that, Flores said, an Obama campaign that came to the Texas Hispanic table ... well, muy tarde.

"Organizationally, the Obama organization is almost like an East Coast organization. It doesn't understand Hispanics, who they are and how to organize them," Flores said.

"He was invited by the Hispanic community in San Antonio when he was in Austin early on, but he said he didn't have enough time for us," he said. "He was invited to San Antonio a second time, but he met only with the Hispanic youth and disregarded the community leaders. Lots of people here still have hard feelings about that."

At the biweekly Chicano Luncheon at La Trinidad United Methodist Church in Fort Worth last week, Tarrant County elections officials distributed voter information in preparation for the primary. The Rev. Stephen Jasso, pastor at All Saints Catholic Church, said everyone at the luncheon should help increase Hispanic voter participation.

De Anda, 62, said the excitement from the presidential race is motivating local Hispanics to participate in this election.

"We're sitting here because a lot of people paid the price," he said. "I saw this unity in Fort Worth among Hispanics back then and the energy and the resolve that they had to do something, to get involved and to put their name in the hat and run for something.

"I feel it happening again. I say, 'Let's move forward, people.'"

In other words: Adelante!