Latino Participation in Democratic Primaries Up; Young Latinos on the Rise
In the New York Times this morning was an Associated Press piece on the rise of young Latino voters citing figures from the Pew Hispanic Center and the efforts of independent groups like Voto Latino to increase the Latino youth vote.
Turnout numbers in the Democratic presidential primaries show an upswing of Latino participation. According to Andres Ramirez, vice president of Hispanic programs at the Washington, D.C. think tank NDN, says Latino participation is up from 9 percent in 2004 to 13 percent this year.
The rising participation among Hispanics is good news for the Democrats, Ramirez said. As much as 75 percent of Hispanics who voted this year participated in Democratic primaries, he said.
And in states such as Florida, where Cubans and other Hispanics historically have leaned toward Republicans, Ramirez said large turnouts this year showed a shift to the Democrats. [emphasis added]
