Are Latino pollsters helping or hurting the Democratic cause?
Imperfect Paradise
LAist Studios
4.5 • 535 Ratings
🗓️ 13 July 2025
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As Democrats confront declining Latino support across three consecutive presidential elections, a fierce debate is unfolding within the party: Are Latino advocacy groups and polling firms helping or hurting the Democratic cause? Critics argue that a flawed messaging strategy — and a complacent advocacy infrastructure — have led to Latino voters drifting right, even toward Donald Trump. But advocates push back, warning that the narrative of a dramatic rightward shift is exaggerated and politically dangerous. In the final episode of a three-part collaboration with Latino USA, Imperfect Paradise host Antonia Cereijido and Latino USA host Maria Hinojosa take you inside the high-stakes debate over the future of Latino political power in America.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Support for LAIST comes from CarPros Kia, featuring the 2027 Kia Telluride Hybrid with a striking new design and family-friendly seating for up to eight. |
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| 0:32.2 | Here's a little history to start off our show. |
| 0:34.6 | Americans started using the term Hispanic in 1970, |
| 0:38.7 | when the category was added to the census. |
| 0:41.3 | And ever since, there's been this perception |
| 0:43.6 | that Hispanics would need their own political representation. |
| 0:53.3 | Now, today of |
| 0:59.3 | Latinos in this |
| 1:01.7 | has continued to boom. |
| 1:03.7 | As of July 2020, |
| 1:05.5 | there are more than 65 million Latinos in the U.S. |
| 1:08.8 | making up over 19% of the nation's population. |
| 1:12.7 | And there are a growing percentage of this country's electorate. |
| 1:16.2 | Latinos make up nearly 15% of all eligible voters, according to the Pew Research Center. |
| 1:22.4 | The hope for the Democratic Party, especially since the mid-aughts, was that the Latino vote |
| 1:27.2 | would be reliably theirs, especially because the mid-aughts, was that the Latino vote would be reliably |
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