The Importance Of Ethnic Identity, Incumbency Advantage, And Professional Credentials

The presence of Latino leaders in all levels of government is necessary in order to have advocates who will represent the needs of the Latino community. Although the Latino population is on the rise and quickly becoming one of the largest ethnic minorities in the United States, the ethnic and racial backgrounds of leaders in government positions are not reflective of our nation’s diversity. Leadership can be developed within the Latino community by individuals who are active participants, have strong roots in their community, and

This research examines the disjuncture between Hispanic strength in population and Hispanic participation in politics. I examine the nature of this disjuncture: its severity, its causes, and its consequences. Hispanics currently comprise 11.2% of the U.S. population, but the Hispanic vote in the 1998 elections comprised only 4.7% of all ballots cast. The situation is even bleaker when considering Hispanic representation in Congress. Currently, less than four percent of U.S. House members are Latino. Add to that clear disjuncture the fact that two of the Hispanic Congressmen do not even possess the ability to vote and that there is not a single Hispanic Senator, and we see that

A diverse minority group of Latino and Spanish-speaking peoples has played an important part of what it means to be American and what it means to be a citizen in the United States today. Moving into the future, in order to analyze the trajectory that this group is in, we must first understand the group’s history in the United States and in territories that would become the United States. In addition, we must look at the origins of the most recent wave of Latino immigration in order to understand their current effect on American society and the intersection between both minority and majority groups. Finally, we get to the apex of this investigation: what lies in the future for Latino Americans in the United States? Although Latino

The result showed that there were racial preference in the voting patterns for the mayoral race, where 82% of Latino voters supported the Latino candidate Villaraigosa, 79% of black voters supported the white candidate Hahn and 58% of whites voted for Hahn (Abrajano, Nagler, & Alverez, 2005). Delgadillo won the city attorney race receiving the majority support from the Latino voters and black voters (Abrajano, Nagler, & Alverez, 2005). White voters who crossed over to vote for a Latino candidate voted based on the issue and position that the candidate was running on, but for Latino voters who voted for the white candidate, the context of the race mattered less (Abrajano, Nagler, & Alverez, 2005). In the spatial model, voter’s ideology had a positive significance in both races (Abrajano, Nagler, & Alverez, 2005). The more liberal the voters in the mayor race were, increased the chances that they would vote for the Latino candidate while in the city attorney race the more conservative the voter were the more likely they would vote for the Latino candidate (Abrajano, Nagler, & Alverez, 2005).

Many workers work in jobs that pay them under the table or in horrible conditions. “Latino households can expect to earn 70 cents to a dollar less than the average white person makes. Hispanic households make 12 cents to a dollar less than white non-Hispanic people” (Schaefer, 2012, P. 224). With Latinos and Hispanics working under the table, they are not making as much as they would make if they were earning a paycheck legally. Since they are also sending money home to their families they have very little left of what they do earn for themselves. “Out of the last quarter century, the proportion of Latinos in poverty has been two or three times that of white non-Hispanics” (Schaefer, 2012, P. 224). With the average American battling to stay above the poverty line, more of the Latino and Hispanic communities are below it because of the financial obstacles in the way. Latino and Hispanic populations have been rapidly growing in the United States. “In 1975 congress addressed citizens with multilingual backgrounds” (Schaefer, 2012, P. 226). Many Latino and Hispanic Americans want to become legal so they can participate in the political position of being a United States citizen. Latino and Hispanic Americans want to be able to vote in upcoming elections. Since the increase in their population and the decision of congress in 1975; more ballots are being made to be English and Spanish depending on the particular country, city or state (Schaefer, 2012, P.

The Latino political experience, much like the experience of other minority groups, has been about fighting for inclusion. In order to be included into mainstream society Latinos had to use different methods to get their grievances heard. In a system that was not designed to benefit minorities, Latinos had to put aside their differences and come together in order to address to economic, political, and social marginalization they faced. Due to restructuring and globalization large segments of the Latino population were excluded from effective economic and political access and participation. As their numbers increased Latinos began to utilize different methods to address the changes in their communities. They used two main methods which reflected two conceptions of empowerment, the electoral based and the household model.

Latinos have always for the most part favored the Democrats over Republicans in presidential contests, because Republican candidates are usually tough on immigration. But what many Latinos fail to realize is that the Obama Administration came down hard on illegal immigration. During Obama’s tenure as President, he managed to deport more immigrants than any other U.S. president in history. But yet Hillary Clinton won 66% of Latino voters on Election Day.

During the 2012 presidential elections, many of the vote turnout rates revealed that the minority vote was the most decisive and important vote for the election. In fact, the minority vote, in 2012, was accredited for Barrack Obama’s presidential incumbency. An example analysis of the aforementioned statement was shown in the Minority Turnout Determined the 2012 Election article by William H. Frey. In his article Frey reports that “[the] increased minority turnout was indeed responsible for Obama’s win in the 2012 election… during this period, the (typically Democratic leaning) combined Black and Hispanic electorate rose to approach nearly quarter of eligible voters” (The Brookings Institution). Frey’s research helps illustrate how crucial,

The Latino population of the United States has grown to become of such great importance that it has many wondering how much influence Latinos will have in the next presidential election. Since the 1960s the Latino population has grown from 3.6 million to 55 million and projected to keep growing through birth rates. According to the Pew Research Center of Hispanic studies, in the 2008 Presidential election Barrack Obama gained 67% share of the Latino vote in the general presidential election, which was a major swing from the projected Latino vote Hilary Clinton was predicted to receive (Lopez, 2008). This growth in the Latino community has many wondering how influence the Latino vote will have on the 2016 presidential election. The Latino population

Contrary to the real meaning of it, the House of Representative is not sociologically representative to the American population as the people’s house, the most receptive entity of the government to the community. However; its agents are very productive in term of representing the citizens of their states. According to the book our lawmakers in Congress, are ordinarily older white males that have legal experiences. The United States population is very heterogeneous and constitutes a large number of people that are minorities with different backgrounds, races, ethnicities and levels of education. As learned in the book “We the People”, in 2010 of the 535 members of Congress only 95 were women around 41 were African Americans and about 31 were

Even though political participation of Latinos nationwide remains low, high concentrations of Latinos still are able to wield power and influence areas that affect Latinos like economic, educational, and social discrimination and exclusion, which, ironically, affect assimilation rates in the first place. The current events in California and other Latino majority areas of the country are but a small preview of the Latino political clout that is to

An Analysis of the Ethnic Variability of the Latino/Hispanic Group in the United States Census

In fact, Texas was ranked second highest population among the 50 states in America. The massive rose of Mexican-American population of the state, impacted the national election in the United States. This minority became a “majority in population” of Texas. It even surpassed the African-American group in total population of Texas. This demographic factor empowered Texas and gained four additional seats in the United States House of Representatives. (14, Mora-Ruger) Consequently, this power opened more doors for Mexican-Americans for much higher positions in the electoral politics in Texas. Their massive percentage of the total population of the states, opportune for representation from their own people for much higher offices. Innately, leaders coming from this minority group will listen, understand and truly care for its own people, better than non-Hispanic

With the greatly disproportionate number of unauthorized Latino immigrants (Appendix 1, Table 2), research shows that many Americans perceived Latinos as “Illegals” and “Criminals” (Perez 2010, Masouka, Junn p.167). This concept of Latinos affects the way the unauthorized immigrant population is treated, not only in the community, but in Congress as well. The portrayal of unauthorized immigrants as criminals allows politicians to prey on the fears of many honest and hardworking Americans.

How the republican party gain black-american votes, is more or less the same as the democratic party gained votes using their own strategies. As both parties have been influencing minorities, ethnic groups have been sought after as voting blocs and attracted by one or another political party based on agendas designed specifically for them (Zake and Gormly, 469–490). This offers insight on how strategies were used not just by the republican but also by the democratic party, this insight offers an opposing viewpoint of Brown that the Republican party was not the only party to use political strategies that were constructed to create diversity. There are many ways that ethnic groups and minorities have been part of political content, during the 1930s the Democratic Nationalities Division found itself engaged in political work even in the periods between the election campaigns and its task was to generate a long-term strategy for appealing to ethnic voters. It consisted of a person or two looking after foreign language affairs (Zake and Gormly, 469–490). The Democrats’ strategy was to put senators or congressmen as the leaders of these foreign languages sections and thus avoid conflicts and power competition among different leaders within the ethnic group. Doing this gives other minorities a sense of accomplishment. Going back to the republicans