Discussion: Mobilizing Latino voters — perspectives from Texas and Arizona

This Facebook Live discussion is part of “Every 30 Seconds,” a collaborative public media reporting project tracing the young Latino electorate leading up to the 2020 presidential election and beyond.

US President-elect Joe Biden won Arizona’s 11 electoral votes for president and Democrat Mark Kelly won a seat in the US Senate, ushering in an era of Democratic leadership not seen since Republicans dominated the 1952 election in the state.

Democrats benefited from the state’s changing demographics — with more young people and Latinos registering, an influx of new residents from more liberal states like California and unease among some suburban women about President Donald Trump.

And a decade of work by grassroots organizations mobilizing Latinos to vote has also been credited as a contributing factor to turning Arizona blue.

In Texas, a state Trump won, the Latino vote was more of a mixed bag for Democrats. Biden did well in cities with large Latino populations such as San Antonio and Houston, picking up 1.34 million more votes than Hillary Clinton did in 2016.

Civic engagement organizations in Texas have also been key to mobilizing the more than 10 million Latino voters in the Lone Star State.

Join us for a Facebook Live looking at the role of two grassroots organizations mobilizing Latinos to vote, one in Arizona and another one in Texas. 

The World’s Daisy Contreras moderated a conversation with Reyna Montoya, founder and CEO of Aliento, an immigrant aid organization in Phoenix, and Antonio Arellano, interim executive director of Jolt Action, a civic engagement group in Texas about their strategy to get Latinos to the polls and the impact it had on the 2020 election.