Bernie Sanders Leads Democratic Candidates In Latino Supporters And Donations
The Democratic primary is heating up with the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary now behind us. During the campaign, some candidates have shown their support for the Latino community and it shows in the number of donations the candidates are receiving. The winner of the Latino donations, so far, is Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
Latinos have donated more than $23 million to Democratic presidential candidates in 2019.
The study, done by Plus Three, analyzed Act Blue donation data to determine the Latino donations in the 2020 Democratic primary. The data showed that Bernie Sanders outraised the rest of the candidates in the field with Latino supporters every month in 2019. There were four months where Sanders raised more than $1 million from Latino supporters.
Sen. Sanders earned a majority of the Latino donations.
Of the $23.7 million donated by Latinos to the Democratic presidential candidates, $8.3 million went to the Bernie Sanders campaign. The contributions came from 1,713,678, according to Plus Three.
However, the study also shows that the Democratic Party is lost significant Latino support after two candidates dropped out.
One of the key factors in the drop in Latino support is a response to Beto O’Rourke and Julián Castro leaving the race. The two candidates received $6.3 million from 315,000 Latino supporters, according to the study. O’Rourke raised $2.6 million dollars from 113,281 contributors while Castro raised $1.8 million dollars from 94,137 contributors.
The loss of Latino supporters signals a lack of Latino voters moving to other candidates as the field narrows. Since the two candidates left the field, Latino donations and contributions dropped 24 percent.
Latinos have become an important and elusive voting bloc.
The Latino voting power is fast-growing. Thirty-two million Latinos will be available to vote in the 2020 general election in November. This will be the first time in history that the Latino voting power will exceed the Black voting power. The trend in voting power is making the Latino community more and more important in elections.
However, Latinos are diverse and complicated as a voting bloc. The Latino community includes all races and religions. Ideology among the Latino community changes based on the voter and their experiences. In California, for example, 39 percent of Latinos identify as liberal, 30 percent consider themselves to moderate, and 31 percent of Latino voters identify as conservative.
Voting habits are also different between generations. In Florida, more and more younger Cubans and Cuban-Americans are registering with the Democrat Party signaling a departure from their conservative parents and grandparents. A study by Florida International University, shows a trend of the Cuban and Cuban-American population in southern Florida trending more liberal.
The FIU study, conducted after the 2018 midterms, Cubans who came to the U.S. before 1980 are 72 percent Republican, 11 percent Democratic, and 17 percent no party affiliation. Meanwhile, Cubans 18 to 39 are 35 percent Republican, 23 percent Democratic, and 40 percent no party affiliation.
Sanders has a commanding lead with Latino voters, and that is the vote that everyone is after.
Super Tuesday is around the corner and the future of the Democratic nomination will really start to take shape.
