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Democracy Dialogues: A Conversation on the Hispanic Vote in the U.S. Midterm Elections

"The competition over the Hispanic vote is now very much a central part of our politics," said political strategist Simon Rosenberg.

Speakers

  • Simon Rosenberg, President, New Democrat Network and the New Policy Institute
  • Eric Farnsworth, Vice President, AS/COA

"Success with Hispanic voters has been arguably the most important project of the Democratic Party in the last 20 years," said Simon Rosenberg of the New Democrat Network and the New Policy Institute in a Democracy Dialogues conversation with AS/COA Vice President Eric Farnsworth

In the United States, 30 to 40 percent of the election happens before election day due to early voting methods, explained Rosenberg. "Republicans struggled to turn out in the early vote," noted Rosenberg, which allowed Democrats to have better results than expected in the 2022 midterm elections. Another factor that hurt the Republican Party was its association with former President Donald Trump, who "recruited and promoted these crazy candidates that made it far easier for [Democrats] to win," said Rosenberg.

Rosenberg also spoke of the role of the Hispanic vote in this year's election. "If the election results that we are seeing coming in today have us winning Nevada and Arizona, we will have continued in our hold on this part of the country, what I call the Mexican-American part of the country," he said. Farnsworth asked about the media narrative that Hispanic voters are turning to the Republican Party. "We did have a dip in 2020, nationally," explained Rosenberg of his party, adding that COVID-19 and the shutdown disproportionately affected Hispanic voters. However, this cycle, strong Hispanic vote numbers are proving critical to Democrats keeping the Senate and potentially getting more House seats than expected.

Watch other episodes of Democracy Dialogues.

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