Maria and Julio are joined by Jennifer Medina, a national politics reporter for The New York Times. They break down recent polling on Latino and Latina voters, including Futuro Media’s first-ever political poll. They also discuss the issues that actually matter to Latino and Latina voters, and what both parties are missing in their outreach. And, they get into Jennifer’s reporting on the rise of right-wing, conservative Latina candidates running on GOP platforms.

ITT Staff Picks:

• Jennifer Medina writes about the challenges Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto — who is the first ever Latina senator — is facing in her bid for re-election, as Democrats learn that “demographics alone are not destiny,” in this piece for The New York Times.

• Suzanne Gamboa reports from historically Democratic South Texas on the highly contested congressional races where Latina Republicans are leading, for NBC News.

• “America’s political parties, and their candidates’ campaigns, often shoot themselves in the foot by thinking that Latino and Hispanic voters have very different priorities when compared to the average American voter,” writes Christian Paz in this analysis for Vox.

Photo credit: AP Photo/Morry Gash