‘We’re here’: Growing Latino voting bloc gains attention of Idaho’s political parties
Elestina Huddleston walked around a grayish room at the Nampa Public Library, coming over to help students or returning to the front to write on the board in black letters: “Civil War. 1994. 9 million.” Pieces of conversations in English and Spanish carried over the squeaking of the marker on the whiteboard.
Outside, a sign in Spanish advertised free citizenship classes — part of the Idaho Democratic Party’s outreach efforts to the Latino community. Canyon County, where the event was held, has a Latino population of over 62,000.
Eulogía Prado already took the class and became an American citizen. Now, she’s helping her husband, Bernardo, through the program. The upcoming presidential election will be her first time voting.
“I’m excited,” Prado said, in Spanish. “I still don’t know which party I am going to choose.”
It’s often more difficult to predict the voting patterns of Latino voters than of other demographics. Though Idaho-specific data is scarce, nationwide trends indicate that both the Democratic and Republican parties have a chance at growing their base with Latinos, Boise State political scientist Jaclyn Kettler said.
Latino voters are an oft-misunderstood group, according to a piece in the Los Angeles Times, with many people thinking of the group as politically motivated by border, agriculture and immigration issues. But nationwide they have cited the economy as their top issue, according to the Pew Research Center.
In the Gem State, Latino Idahoans have seen their wages grow since the 2008 recession, but they still lag behind non-Latino Idahoans when it comes to important measures of income and homeownership rates, according to the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs’ Hispanic Profile Data Book.
Latino Idahoans make up 13% of the state’s population, according to the data book, and over 80% are U.S. citizens.
But Latino voter participation and registration have not always been high — part of a vicious cycle in which many Latinos are left behind in the political process, Kettler said. Feeling unheard, they don’t vote.
But it’s also a voting bloc that is young and growing, Kettler said. In 2021, the median age of Idaho Latinos was 13 years younger than the median age of non-Latino Idahoans. That means Latino voters’ peak influence is still to come.
“Winning younger Latino voters may be really important as the proportion of the population continues to grow,” Kettler said. “I think we see parties try to do different things.”
Idaho Republicans
It’s not clear what official approach Republicans are taking when it comes to Latino voters. The Idaho Republican Party did not make anyone available to the Statesman for comment after multiple requests. Greg Stuck, with the Canyon County Republican Central Committee, did not return a request for comment.
Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, told the Statesman that Latino voters are no different than any other. He said he had served the Spanish-speaking community as an attorney and worked to bridge gaps via a sister city in Jalisco, Mexico.
“I see us all as one community regardless of color, race or background,” Skaug said.
To Skaug, the Republican Party’s platform of smaller government, a tough-on-crime attitude and lower taxes can appeal to Latino voters.
In 2021, Raúl Labrador’s former communications director, Phil Hardy, wrote an opinion piece in the Idaho Statesman urging Republicans to do a “better job” reaching out to Latino voters, stressing that they were making up a greater percentage of Idaho’s population.
Hardy suggested Republicans emphasize family values and job creation, and take a stance on statehood for Puerto Rico.
“Republicans must do a better job of listening to Latino voter concerns if they want to win over that voting bloc,” Hardy wrote. “Republicans and Latino voters don’t have to agree on every issue, but Republicans will need to show they are taking Latino issues seriously if they want more support.”
State Sen. Brian Lenney, R-Nampa, did not answer questions about how his campaign and Republicans have reached out to Latino voters, saying only in an email that “being conservative isn’t just for ‘white people,’ it’s racist to imply otherwise.”
Idaho Democrats
Jared DeLoof, executive director of the Idaho Democratic Party, and Lauren Necochea, the chair of the Idaho Democratic Party, sat in a sunny office downtown in late September, explaining how they’re trying to gain the trust of Latino voters.
It’s a long-term goal, DeLoof said, with an emphasis on showing a “vested interest” in the community year-round, not just during campaign season.
There’s the citizenship preparation classes, held in Nampa. There are Spanish-language phone banks, bilingual text messages and materials available in Spanish. The Democratic Party also hired a relational organizer who works in Lincoln and Jerome counties to organize the growing Latino community there.
Jerome County had the sixth-highest Latino population in Idaho in 2021.
“What we’re doing in these sorts of areas is really tapping into the community structures that already exist,” DeLoof said. “It’s slow work, but I believe ultimately it’s going to be really effective.”
And like Republicans, Democrats believe their policies and platform can appeal to Latinos.
“Latino families are just like anyone else, they’re working really hard with the hopes that their children will have greater economic security than they do,” Neochea said. “That’s the American dream.”
To DeLoof and Necochea, the biggest issues Latinos face are economic ones: child care, jobs that can pay sustainable wages, and funding for schools in places such as Caldwell, which has a majority Latino student population. And they think those issues fall into the Democrats’ corner.
“I just don’t think it could be more stark of a difference,” DeLoof said.
Idaho’s Latinos let parties ‘know that we’re here’
In the Nampa Public Library, several people took turns answering questions about the United States. Everyone in the class, all of them originally from Mexico, is preparing to become an American citizen.
They learned about slavery, the Mexican-American war, the Spanish-American war and other events of the 1800s. Bernardo, the man whose wife is already a citizen, said that at this point, he knows more American history than Mexican history.
The people in the class gave various reasons about why they wanted to be citizens. Many said they liked learning about the country’s history and learning English, and wanted to vote and be part of the community.
“My husband and my kids are all already citizens,” Claudia Gordillo Meza said in Spanish, laughing.
Although they can’t vote until they’re citizens, one student in the class said she felt like the Democratic Party cared more about Latinos than Republicans. Another said there were things the political parties didn’t understand about the Latino community.
Several cited their families as the biggest concern for them in their lives.
“I want better opportunities for them so they have more stable lives,” Gordillo Meza said.
Ultimately, it’s up to the political parties to figure out how they’ll interact with and draw in Idaho’s Latino voters.
“Take us (the Latino community) into account,” Jose Vega Albor said in Spanish. “They (political parties) should know that we’re here.”
This story was originally published October 17, 2024 at 4:00 AM.
