Commentary: Why California’s Latino voters are shifting toward Trump and Republicans
By Mike Madrid, Los Angeles Times The Tribune Content Agency Updated
December 16, 2024 4:33 AM
About two hundred students gather at the free speech area at Fresno State in October 1994 to protest Proposition 187, which would deny illegal immigrants public education, social services and non-emergency health care. The rally concluded a two-day campout at the university by Chicano students from several organizations against Prop. 187. At the end of the rally students sang in Spanish, We’ll get Wilson out of California, to the tune of a Mexican song called We’ll get that ox out of the ravine. (Hector Amezcua/Fresno Bee/TNS) c TNS Thirty years ago this fall, California's Latino voters coalesced into a multigenerational ethnic voting bloc for the first time in response to a draconian, citizen-led initiative targeting immigrants who were in the state illegally. Proposition 187 sought to deny most of the state's taxpayer-funded services to undocumented immigrants. While it was ultimately ruled unconstitutional, the proposition catalyzed a generation of Latino voters and politicians into a movement, binding the Latino electorate to the immigrant experience and shaping the state's politics accordingly for decades. A lot can change in 30 years. The emergence of a new generation of voters has combined with shifting attitudes about identity and security to upend those notions of what motivates the Latino electorate.
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