Obama's Latino Mandate

By Steve Cobble and Joe Velasquez, The Nation. Posted November 20, 2008.

New Mexico went deep blue this year, choosing Obama by double digits; electing Senator Tom Udall, a strong progressive (who is Mark Udall's cousin and former JFK Interior Secretary Stewart Udall's son); and electing a new Latino Congressman from the northern part of the state -- while flipping the other two Congressional districts from Republican to Democratic -- one for the first time ever, the other for the first time in almost thirty years.

Then there's Florida, where the changing loyalties of younger Cuban-Americans threatened the previously safe seats of three Cuban-American Republicans in the Miami area. Meanwhile, the growing Puerto Rican communities in central Florida voted heavily for the Democratic ticket. The result? For the first time in decades, hatred of Fidel Castro did not guarantee the Latino vote for the GOP in Florida. Instead, 57 percent of Florida Latinos cast their ballots for Obama, helping the Democratic ticket carry the state by a decisive enough margin to prevent a repeat of the stolen election of 2000.

(One other interesting point, especially for progressives -- the organizing strategy of the Obama campaign came historically out of the United Farm Workers movement. The building blocks of their brilliant grassroots structure had their roots in Latino labor organizing. As did, of course, Obama's wonderful "Yes, We Can!" slogan, a direct descendant of Cesar Chavez's "¡Sí Se Puede!")

So Latinos came through in a big way in 2008, despite the idiotic pundit predictions. In fact, Latinos cast Democratic votes in just about the same proportion as did young people, more than 2-to-1 for Obama. This is a very hopeful sign, because Latinos are a very young and growing population.

The Democratic Party should treat these voters very seriously, and nurture the relationship with both young people and Latinos. Policy changes in healthcare, educational opportunity and new "green jobs," changes that improve the lives of Latinos as well as young people, could reap massive vote advantages in key electoral states for years to come.

Especially when voting in combination with the African-American community, Latinos could be a leading edge of a long-term, center-left political realignment. The "black/brown coalition" vote in this election exceeded one-fifth of the electorate, while the black/brown share of Barack Obama's winning vote exceeded one-third, and served as the foundation of this inspiring victory.

If demography is destiny, consider these census statistics: the fast-growing Latino population in this country is now about 15 percent of the total. By 2050, only four decades from now, Latinos are projected to double their share of the population. The black/brown share of the US population will be about 45 percent.

Sí, se puede, indeed.

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Steve Cobble is an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, a co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org, and a co-founder of the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA). Joe Velasquez, former White House deputy political director and longtime union organizer, directs Moving America Forward, a 527 organization dedicated to registering and mobilizing Latinos.

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