{"id":29141,"date":"2016-02-16T16:00:49","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T22:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=29141"},"modified":"2016-02-19T12:33:27","modified_gmt":"2016-02-19T18:33:27","slug":"advocacy-groups-leverage-growing-illinois-hispanic-voting-bloc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/advocacy-groups-leverage-growing-illinois-hispanic-voting-bloc\/","title":{"rendered":"Advocacy groups leverage growing Illinois Hispanic voting bloc"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Hannah Rank<\/strong><\/p>\n

The consistently growing population of Hispanics in Illinois, paired with an unprecedented number of eligible voters, have local activists involved in Hispanic outreach looking for ways to engage this voting bloc.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something we\u2019ve been anticipating for a very long time,\u201d Celina Villanueva, who runs voter engagement programming at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), said of the growing Latino constituency. \u201cThis is a voting bloc that really hasn\u2019t flexed its muscles to the full capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Pew Research Center, there were 708,000 eligible Hispanic voters in Illinois in 2008; for the 2016 election cycle there will be 951,000. That\u2019s 34 percent more eligible voters over an eight-year period, and 44 percent of the total population of Hispanics in the state. The think-tank ranked<\/a> Illinois the 11th highest state for percentage of Hispanic voters. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"(Figures
(Figures courtesy of Pew Research Center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Martin Torres, senior policy analyst for the Latino Policy Forum, a Chicago-based organization that promotes Latino involvement in political decision-making, noted that though there are a growing number of eligible voters, compared with other demographic groups, turnout of Hispanic at the polls still lags. Torres said in the 2014 midterms, 65 percent of eligible non-Latino white voters and 69 percent of eligible non-Latino blacks cast a ballot, yet only 53 percent of eligible Latino voters cast a ballot. <\/p>\n

Pew also noted<\/a> that, nationally, the largest age bracket of eligible Hispanic voters \u2013 nearly half \u2013 are millennials (ages 18-36).<\/p>\n

Both Torres and Villanueva credit young people as driving population growth and voter eligibility in Illinois as well. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the kids that are now growing up that are turning 18 years old that are moving into that space where they\u2019re the citizens in the household,\u201d Villanueva said. <\/p>\n

\u201cLatino children now account for one in four children under age five and about that percentage which is in pre-K through K-12,\u201d Torres said. \u201cIn a couple of generations, you\u2019re looking at a Latino population that\u2019s almost a quarter or about a quarter of the state\u2019s population.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of 2014, the Hispanic population accounted for 17 percent of the total Illinois population. <\/p>\n

\"Percentage
Though it would appear the total population has increased in Illinois since 2008 \u2013 from 12.7 million to nearly 12.9 million – the white and black populations are steadily decreasing, leaving the Hispanic population to offset that population loss. According to U.S. Census\u2019 Population Estimates analyzed by Medill, as of 2014 (the most recent estimates) nearly 46,000 whites and more than 11,000 blacks have left the state since 2010. In contrast, the population of Hispanics has increased by nearly 50,000.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Villanueva focuses a good amount of her time on engaging these new, young, mostly second-generation voters with programs like the New Americans Democracy Project (NADP). She says the earlier you can get them invested in politics and specifically the issues affecting their communities, the more likely they are to participate in elections. <\/p>\n

Villanueva says she also stations volunteers outside swearing in ceremonies so, immediately after becoming a citizen, people will become registered. She hopes in the future the process of new citizen voter registration will be automatized and synchronized. <\/p>\n

As Villanueva explains, these initiatives ultimately stem from a desire to change Latino immigrants\u2019 perceptions of democracy and the voting process \u2013 a system that in their home countries has often not served them well. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, they might have been fleeing persecution because of political involvement or because of levels of education,\u201d she said. \u201cOr they might just be fighting for their lives and so, priorities are different. Democracy isn\u2019t necessarily the priority \u2013 the priority is making money to feed my kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Villanueva worries also about the lack of Latino representation in political office, and how that affects turnout. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf folks don\u2019t see themselves represented in the candidates that are running for offices, and truly see themselves represented, it\u2019s a turnoff.\u201d Villanueva said.<\/p>\n

As an example, she cited Jes\u00fas \u201cChuy\u201d Garcia’s campaign against Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the midterms last fall. \u201cYou had over 20,000 more Latinos come out to vote for a municipal election within the Chicago area, as opposed to the gubernatorial election a few months before that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Torres said that for those legislative districts that have a pretty substantial but not majority Hispanic population \u2013 meaning around 15 to 30 percent of the population – Latino voter turnout is \u201cabsolutely critical.\u201d According Torres, of the 177 combined state legislative districts, around 59 fit those parameters. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery lawmaker has access to the voter file and every lawmaker knows which residents are voting,\u201d Torres said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s critical to Latinos across the state and those Latinos that live in these districts to get out, cast a ballot, be counted, be heard, and to show that this demographic is one that you should pay attention to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Naturalization swearing in ceremony. Celina Villanueva, head of ICIRR voter engagement, said that she sends volunteers to register people directly after their swearing in ceremony (Grand Canyon National Park\/FLICKR<\/a>)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Hannah Rank The consistently growing population of Hispanics in Illinois, paired with an unprecedented number of eligible voters, have local activists involved in Hispanic outreach looking for ways to engage this voting bloc. \u201cThis is something we\u2019ve been anticipating for a very long time,\u201d Celina Villanueva, who runs voter engagement programming at the Illinois […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":29147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[452,1145,30,675,585],"tags":[482,1297,1298,1386,1388,1387,1198],"class_list":["post-29141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beyond-chicago","category-election-2016","category-public-affairs","category-social-justice","category-winter-2016","tag-election","tag-hispanic","tag-hispanic-population","tag-icirr","tag-latino-policy-forum","tag-pew-research-center","tag-voting"],"yoast_head":"\nAdvocacy groups leverage growing Illinois Hispanic voting bloc - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/advocacy-groups-leverage-growing-illinois-hispanic-voting-bloc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Advocacy groups leverage growing Illinois Hispanic voting bloc - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Hannah Rank The consistently growing population of Hispanics in Illinois, paired with an unprecedented number of eligible voters, have local activists involved in Hispanic outreach looking for ways to engage this voting bloc. \u201cThis is something we\u2019ve been anticipating for a very long time,\u201d Celina Villanueva, who runs voter engagement programming at the Illinois […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/advocacy-groups-leverage-growing-illinois-hispanic-voting-bloc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-16T22:00:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-02-19T18:33:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/02\/5021872334_18367e1a04_b.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hannahrank\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"hannahrank\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/advocacy-groups-leverage-growing-illinois-hispanic-voting-bloc\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/advocacy-groups-leverage-growing-illinois-hispanic-voting-bloc\/\",\"name\":\"Advocacy groups leverage growing Illinois Hispanic voting bloc - 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