NAC Blog: Are you ready for Super Tuesday?

Celebrating NAHREP familia, cultura, politics, and grassroots action

Que onda mi gente?!

We are currently in the middle of writing the State of Hispanic Homeownership Report so I’m mostly in hiding these days. I am looking forward to sharing the data with all of you and discussing how we can work together to advance this year’s policy priorities.

However, before we do that, we need to make our voices heard and vote!

A HUGE day is coming up for the Latino community. On March 3rd, Latinos will make the biggest impact on the election in 2020 to date. March 3rd is Super Tuesday, the day where 14 states will hold primaries for the 2020 Presidential Election. BUT, the presidential primary is not the only office we vote for on Super Tuesday – there are also local elected officials and local ballot measures that influence our NAHREP housing agenda.

What is the role of Latinos in the electorate?

You will hear a lot in the media about the role of the “Latino Vote” and whether or not we made our voices heard or stayed home. The truth is, Latinos are a huge voting block. The largest, actually. This year for the very first time, Latinos are the largest racial or ethnic minority group eligible to vote. That’s pretty powerful, but do we realize it?

The problem is, not enough of us are voting. It is estimated that there are 32 million eligible Latino voters, but over half are not registered. It’s up to us to decide whether or not the pundits and headlines lead with, “Latinos made big waves this election”, or “Latinos stayed home.” If the mission of our organization is to “change the narrative,” this matters. Only YOU can decide what side of the story we we’ll be on.

The three states on Super Tuesday where Latinos will play the biggest role will be California, where Latinos will be 32% of eligible voters, Texas at 28.4%, and Colorado at 12%. Every time you don’t vote, you give that much more power to the people who did vote. Like I’ve said before, NOT voting IS voting.

In the spirit of the NAHREP 10, let’s combine two of our favorite disciplines:

Set some time aside to go over your sample ballots with your children. Teach your kids how to research propositions, ballot measures and candidates. Read articles that your local newspapers have written about them and research what each candidate stands for. The process should be fun and an important learning experience for your children.

If you do that, please share with the rest of us on social media with the hashtag #NAHREPFAMILIAVOTES.

If you are not already registered, it might be that the voter registration deadlines have already passed for the March 3rd Super Tuesday. BUT in many states, you can register in-person on election day at any polling place.

Super Tuesday states that allow for in-person registration:

California    Colorado    Minnesota    Maine    Utah    Vermont

If you live in one of the states that don’t allow for day-of registration (Alabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia), it’s not too late to register for the 2020 General Election on November 3.

Visit www.vote.gov to find out how to register in your state. Most states allow for online registration, if not, they accept registration by mail. It takes less than five minutes, we got this!

Nos vemos la proxima semana. Un abrazo!