Latino/as’ changing economic fortunes in the wake of the Great Recession and the racist undertones of anti-immigrant rhetoric are major sources of their disillusionment with the Republican Party. While Latino/as have more positive attitudes toward the Democratic Party, their feelings are lukewarm.
Latino/as distrust of the Republican Party was high even before explicitly racist language became mainstream again this year. Much of this distrust is rooted in the GOP’s discourse on immigrants and immigration, but immigration is not the only policy area in which Latinos and Republicans diverge in opinion.
Settlement Ensures Low-Income New Jerseyans Will Be Offered the Chance to Register to Vote
TRENTON, NEW JERSEY and WASHINGTON, D.C, July 14, 2016 — Voting rights advocates and New Jersey officials announced today that they have reached a settlement to ensure low-income citizens are provided voter registration services through public assistance agencies, as required by the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). New Jerseyans will be able to access these registration options in advance of the 2016 presidential elections.
Today, Congressman Robert Brady, the ranking member of the Committee on House Administration, introduced the “Automatic Voter Registration Act of 2016.” A companion bill has also been introduced in the Senate. In response, Brenda Wright, Demos’ Vice President of Policy and Legal Strategies, offered the following statement of support:
Confidence in American political institutions is at one of its lowest points in recorded history. About one out of every ten Americans expresses confidence in Congress and roughly one-third have confidence in the presidency or the Supreme Court, according to a Gallup poll from June. By contrast, nearly three-quarters of Americans have confidence in the military; a small majority trust the police.
If the twin threats to public pensions continue, African American retirees may lose much of the retirement security they’ve gained over the past half-century.
Without protecting and expanding public pension systems, black retirees may lose much of the retirement security they have gained in the last 50 years, a new Demos report finds. The public sector has long been a strong source of employment for African Americans, with 21.2 percent of all black women and 15.4 percent of all black men working in the public sector.
In 2014, public pensions and Social Security together accounted for 57 percent of black retirees’ income compared to 49 percent for white retirees.
Immigration policy is considered the holy grail of policies when it comes to attracting Latino voters. Immigration is explicitly mentioned in the post-2012 Republican autopsy report as one of the strategies to increase the party’s base racial and ethnic diversity.
Public policies can either fuel or ease racial disparities in wealth. This report marks the first-ever systematic analysis of the impact of different policies, highlighting the policies that could help erase the racial wealth gap.
League of Women Voters of Virginia intervened in the lawsuit, and argued that the proposed purging would have threatened eligible voters
Following a hearing Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema dismissed a lawsuit filed by self-styled "election integrity" group Virginia Voter's Alliance. The suit sought to force Alexandria's registrar to conduct what the League of Women Voters of Virginia (LWV-VA), which intervened in the case, called an unnecessary and ill-conceived voter purge.
League of Women Voters of Virginia says proposed purge could threaten eligible voters in November election
Tomorrow, a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, will address a request by the League of Women Voters of Virginia to intervene in an ongoing legal battle there, where a self-styled “election integrity” group has sued the city’s registrar in an attempt to pressure her into conducting an unnecessary and improper purge of the voter rolls in advance of the 2016 election.
The Rising American Electorate was credited with helping Barack Obama win the presidency in 2008 and his reelection in 2012. Comprised of people of color, women, and young people, this Rising Electorate represents people in constituencies that have been underserved in a political system that increasingly caters to the needs of the wealthy.
Shortly before I went on parental leave, an acquaintance asked me about my plans for the “three-month vacation” awaiting me. After explaining that I was going to take care of a newborn child full-time for three months, my acquaintance responded, “Oh, good for you!” This interaction marked the first time I realized that many people do not take fathers as caregivers seriously.
Latinos have various national origins and ancestries, as well as generational, citizenship, and political differences. Even within our diversity, Latino unity is on the rise thanks to the emergence of the Latino counterpublic.
Differences of opinion are certainly important, but at some point the question of how inclusive the dominant society must be to the concerns of different people will have to move beyond the realm of personal preference.
Yesterday, a voting rights coalition asked the federal court to stop Ohio’s practice of removing properly registered voters from its voter registration list simply because they have not voted in recent elections.
Inequality is the common thread connecting every issue we work on at Demos, and challenging the public narrative about that inequality is essential to our work to solve it. This year, we’re proud to have an ally in that fight in the entire team behind the upcoming television documentary series America Divided, premiering this fall on EPIX.