This Idaho demographic is growing. A new group wants to energize them for election
Idaho’s Hispanic population is young, growing and evolving — and one new Idaho group wants to help that community expand its political clout.
Gerardo “Tato” Muñoz, president of the recently formed Idaho Hispanic Political Education Committee, told the Idaho Statesman that the organization has a two-sided goal: Getting voters involved in the political process, while also helping disprove narratives that cast the state’s Hispanic population in a negative light. The group plans to focus first on the Magic Valley and Canyon County.
The group is working with an infusion of cash, including $10,000 from the John Evans Political Action Committee and $5,000 from Idaho’s Realtors.
Sometimes, with older generations, people feel like voting won’t make a difference, Muñoz said.
“What we want to tell them is that is definitely going to make a difference,” he said. “If you were not part of selecting the people that made those decisions, you have no right to complain.”
Right now, the committee’s focus is on getting the community to vote in Tuesday’s Republican primary, which Muñoz said is pretty much what decides the winners in November in the areas where they are focused.
“Hispanic is a label for me. That label belongs to me, but I am not that label. I am a story. There is a story behind me and I think there’s a story behind every person,” Muñoz said in a phone interview. “That’s what we’re trying to do, trying to promote the fact that there is a story behind every person.”
Muñoz’s story began in Cali, Colombia, which he said he left as a teenager to study in Texas. He and his wife moved to Idaho three decades ago. In 2005, he became a naturalized citizen, a day he recalls proudly.
Hispanic voters are often misunderstood, with many viewing the bloc as motivated by issues of immigration and agriculture, according to the Los Angeles Times and previous Statesman reporting. National polling suggests many Hispanic people are most concerned about the economy.
Muñoz is quick to disavow the idea that the group is pro-illegal immigration and told the Statesman a critical value for the community is education.
“I worry about my 401k, I worry about all those different things. I worry about my rights. I put political signs for some of the candidates on my lawn and I worry about what my neighbors might think about me,” Muñoz said. “Those are the same worries that everybody else has.”
Still, the group’s ads tell voters to “fight back”, citing anti-immigrant legislation, as well as the fact that some lawmakers in 2026 attempted to eliminate or defund the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs, which serves as a bridge between the growing population and state government. At least two lawmakers, Reps. Mike Pohanka, R-Jerome, and Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, voted to save the commission in part because of the heavily Latino districts they serve, they previously told the Statesman.
Muñoz said some of the immigration bills would have meant legal immigrants needed to carry their papers, and potentially would have singled out those with a different skin color.
The group wants to register voters, counteract the entrenched beliefs among some that their political participation won’t matter and look for candidates to run, he said. Muñoz has served on the Twin Falls Planning & Zoning Commission and plans to run a third time for city council, though the first two campaigns were unsuccessful.
“(Voting) is not a right, it’s a responsibility,” he said.
It remains to be seen how their attempts to energize the Hispanic vote will shake out. There were just under 120,000 eligible Idaho Latino voters in 2024, according to estimates by the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute, based on the American Community Survey by the U.S. Census. Overall, Hispanic people make up over 14% of Idaho’s population, more than the amount of people who live in Boise.
Hispanic Idahoans are also young, with a median age of 28 compared with 36 statewide, according to the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs. The commission’s executive director, Annette Tipton, previously told the Statesman the population is growing, diversifying and professionalizing.
The Republican and Democratic parties say their policies and platforms can appeal to the bloc. Still, statewide representation is scarce.
There are at least two Latina legislators — Democratic Rep. Soñia Galaviz and Republican Sen. Camille Blaylock. Another Latino official, Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, has been a staunch anti-immigrant voice in state government.
Within the Hispanic community, immigration is a tricky subject, like it is for the country as a whole. Caldwell Republican Rep. Lucas Cayler said on the House floor that he had talked with Hispanic constituents in his district while campaigning, people who by his telling said they were unhappy about illegal immigration because they thought it was unfair and hurt their job prospects.
Muñoz told the Statesman that for those who are anti-immigration, his goal is to educate on what immigrants, here legally or not, contribute.
“Immigration is the story of this country,” he said.
