Posted on 05/17/2012 11:58:03 AM PDT by dragnet2
Ask the Texas Democratic Party and, as far as they’re concerned, there has never been a Latino party chair. This is partly due to party structure. But, it’s also the historical exclusion of Latinos from power in Texas.
Whatever the case, that’s all about to change.
One way or another, in a few short months, a Latino will be the public face of the Democratic Party in Texas. Currently, the only three candidates are Gilberto Hinojosa of Brownsville, Fidel Acevedo of Austin, and Rachel Barrios-Van Os of San Antonio. Changes have been taking place within the party in the past few years, such as the recently launched Promesa Project meant to bring Latinos into the political fold. As a result, it seems that the Democratic Party is run increasingly by, and marketing itself to, Latinos.
In June, at the party’s convention in Houston, delegates will have to choose between Latino candidates to replace current chair, Boyd Richie, who has held the position since 2005. While Latinos are pushing population growth in Texas, Latino politicians are an ever larger part of the Democratic delegation, and would-be Latino voters hold the key to power in the Lone Star State.
And last but not least, Latinos are increasingly the backbone of the Democratic party, specifically: in 2005, Ruben Hernandez became executive director; in 2009 Anthony Gutierrez became the deputy executive director; in 2006 the first Spanish speaking spokesperson was hired; and last year Rebecca Acuña was brought on to serve as the deputy political director for base outreach, as well as being the director of communications.
On the elected side, about half of the Democrats in the state house are Latinos, as are 56% of Democratic state senators in a state with 3.8 million eligible Latino voters. By 2033, Latinos will be the dominant voting age population in Texas.
In the state where Univisón’s newscast gets the highest ratings, the Democratic party is modeling itself after the booming part of the population.
“The ultimate goal is: this is the path you take to flipping the state,” said Gutierrez, in reference to Latino voters. “[But] You can’t have a plan where you go to try to contact Latinos two months before election day. This has to be constant and ongoing, something we are constantly communicating to Latinos — especially young Latinos. They are going to be the future of the party, we have to figure out how to bring them in.”
Part of this strategy is the aforementioned Promesa Project, which is modeled after The Great Schlep, Sarah Silverman’s Jewish outreach efforts in Florida during the 2008 presidential election. The party is training Latino volunteers at university campuses throughout the state to get the word out to their families and communities about voter registration, voting, and generally the political process. These campuses were selected for their significant Latino student enrollment, as well as being areas where Latino voters have the power to swing an election, Acuña explained.
“You can’t say, ‘We need to get Latinos out to vote with no political strategy. That is not the way to address the situation,” she argued. “If you actually focus on specific districts where Latinos are a large percentage of the population and their votes alone can swing an election, you can completely change the outcome.”
The way people at the Texas Democratic Party tell it, it was other Latinos who spurred the party into pursuing this type of action: in 2005 the party was publicly attacked by Latino politicians for not doing enough Latino outreach. Since then, Gutierrez claims the party has spent more money on, and emphasized, Latino voter outreach.
But thanks to the multiplier effects of social media, the party now has additional tools to conduct this sort of outreach, specifically using videos and social networks to do its Promesa Project advocacy. The party is even leveraging Facebook for the project, allowing participants to see which of their friends have voted.
But, Acuña and Gutierrez said the ultimate goal is to turn Texas into a blue state, while bringing Latinos into the fold to do so. The Promesa Project is one way they hope to bring in some of the 2.1 million Latinos eligible to vote but not registered, to expand the universe of voters available in the state — and if they’re really lucky — recruit more Latinos to participate beyond the ballot box and join in the party’s mission.
Yep.. my point exactly.
You propose what?
I propose nothing. I have no idea how to get the Latino vote.
Hmmmm.
Lemme know when ya come up with something.
Texas will never become a liberal strong hold like California, for one thing it has a strong Evangelical population which will convert many Hispanics into Republican voting Protestants, something that California could not do.
Conservatism in Texas is strong, deep, widespread, and passionate, it is not a passive force merely observing things, it jumps in to intervene and force changes, and deal with fluid situations.
California never had the Texas core to counter what it passively allowed to wash over it’s wishy washy people with their lite religion, lite republicanism, lite Americanism, lite Protestantism, Texans are red blooded people, and the conservatives, and Christians there are used to fighting.
Texas will go the way of California and there will be no excuse for Texas as they are supposed to be a conservative state unlike California. What is wrong with your “conservative” leaders who are allowing this unending invasion from the south?
When we see illegals sneaking across the border most of them are male, occasionally you will see a couple of females, but in order to produce such large numbers of children there must be large numbers of women who are sneaking across the border. This is puzzling, how are they doing it? There must be other ways for women to sneak into the United States. Many people have permits to come cross the border to shop, visit family etc., I wonder if women just get these permits, enter into the US and then melt into the population? Its seems like a really easy thing to do. I am pretty sure that the Border Patrol are not keeping track of the people who temporarily enter legally.
I’m moving to Greece when that happens.
Best of all possible worlds, cheap labor and they do not vote. sarc/
Absolutely.
An this is a “conservative” state? What a joke.
My point is that the bad example of CA could wake up TX which includes Hispanics. Hispanics, seeing CA going down the tubes, may finally wake up and turn away from socialist Dems.
Lol drugnet2.
They should have had their bell rung years ago. Are they still asleep?
So you understand, the illegals don't see CA going down. They see a new homeland. Get it? The Hispanic community leaders and their religious/business cabal want more illegals. The more pour in, the more power/influence they gain. Your government picked up on this years ago
BTW grumpy, don't call me names, as I am much better at it if need be, and you won't like it.
Cheers!
Aren’t there a fair portion of Latinos that are Republicans in Texas? Far higher than the national average I think; this will make it a lot harder for them to “Turn Texas Blue”. EVER!
[[ Texas Growing Brown Turns It Blue
Is anyone really surprised? ]]
I’m surprised.
After all, I have heard again and again and again and again and again (is that enough?) right here in this forum, that Hispanics are “basically conservative” and that if we only “tailor the conservative message” to suit them, that they will come over to our side and “vote red”...
Would you deny that you have not heard the same, from many, many Freepers?
Could this not be so?
If it happens, I might move to Australia.
You are foolin’ yourself, just look at Kalifornia for your future!
The country is ripe for problems since both parties are failing and they are making things worse. And Obama has a lot of things wrong. And Romney is just as bad.
Ya, I've heard all that. So you understand, I'm on the front lines of this government sponsored invasion. Close up, in your face.
Ya got people with hardcore history changing agendas regardless of what some of these people with warm and fuzzy Pollyanna thoughts think. Yes, obviously there are some Americans of Hispanic/Mexican heritage who are conservative and are as much American as you or I. Some more so. I have to tell you this?
However, they are far out numbered by legal and illegals, with agendas which do not benefit or are supportive of our country, it's history, or future. Look at the voting patterns. It's no secret, except maybe to you and a few others.
See this article for instance.
There are thousands more I could refer you to, but I don't have the time or energy.
It may come as a shock to you, but ya can't allow in tens of millions illegally, and not expect it to change a country's history/culture/direction. Those who can't grasp this are extremely ignorant or naive.
Yep, some of these folks seem extremely isolated, or extremely naive. Or else they just can’t admit the obvious which has been forced fed down their throats for years now.
Promise?
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