The main event at the California Democratic Party Convention was a presidential town hall forum hosted by Spanish-language TV network Univision. The overall question this brings up: How important is it for the presidential candidates to court Latinx voters in California?
“Latinos are now a plurality, have been a plurality of the population in California… As California goes for the Democrats...you have not only young Latino voters, [but] even myself, Gen X voters in their 40s, who are never going to vote for the Republican party again, and they want more liberal activism from your Democrats,” says journalist Gustavo Arellano.
Recent polling shows that about 25% of likely Democratic voters are Latinx. But do they actually vote? Arellano says Latinos are going to vote for issues or candidates they really feel enthusiastic about. He adds, “Latinos are legendary, I would argue, for being reactive voters. So if you’re going to demonize them, they’re going to come out, and they’re going to vote you out of office.”
Josh Barro, host of KCRW’s “Left, Right and Center,” points out that in all demographic groups, there’s a huge generational divide. “You see very strong support for Joe Biden among older black voters. It’s a much more fragmented field for the young black vote. And you see similar divisions among white voters and Hispanic voters.”
The panel also looks at what matters to Latinx voters, young voters, and OC voters.