With the Nevada caucus behind them, the GOP presidential candidates now turn to Colorado, where they will compete in their sixth nominating contest so far this year. Despite the fact that immigration is believed to not be a major issue for most Republican caucus-goers, as in years past, the issue will surely have clear salience in November as Latino voters size up the candidates and their positions on the issues that matter.
Latino voters' share of the electorate is expected to grow yet again in the 2012 election. If the past two cycles and results of the 2010 Census are any guide, Colorado's Latino voters and the issue of immigration reform will have a big impact on the 2012 contests--not only in the Presidential race, but key House races as well.
Here are some of the relevant facts and figures to keep in mind about Colorado, as well as analysis about recent elections and what their results mean for 2012.
Latino voters are expanding their political clout in Colorado, and immigration is a defining issue for these voters:
- If there's one number that you need to know, it's that Latinos constituted 21% of Colorado's population as of 2010. Colorado has the 8th largest Hispanic population nationwide, and Latino Decisions estimates that Latinos will comprise 11% of Colorado's registered voters by the 2012 general election. A supermajority of these Hispanic voters--75%--are of Mexican descent.
2008: Obama flips Colorado and other states from red to blue, with help of Latino voters
- President Obama got 54% of the vote in 2008 in Colorado, which was one of the four states in Obama's column that George Bush won in 2004. In each of those four states, which also includes Nevada, New Mexico and Florida, the Latino vote was a decisive factor in Obama's win.
2010: The immigration issue was key to erecting a "Latino firewall" in the West that led to Senator Bennet's victory and ended the "Republican wave" at the Rockies
- Democrat Michael Bennet has been a consistent supporter of comprehensive immigration reform; he is a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act, and his campaign website stated that it is "time for practical, comprehensive reform that fixes our immigration system as a whole--enhancing border security and creating sound policy solutions for undocumented immigration." Republican Ken Buck, on the other hand, advocated an enforcement-only position, and was backed by the extremist Americans for Legal Immigration Reform Political Action Committee (ALIPAC).
- 2012: Top of the ticket Republicans are anti-immigrant - and that matters
- Mitt Romney has already seared his image as an anti-immigrant candidate into the minds of Latino voters. Romney's vow to veto the DREAM Act and his continued calls for self-deportation of undocumented immigrants are reverberating in the Latino community - and will continue to do so through November. Romney is being advised by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the author of Arizona's SB 1070, which is strongly opposed by Latinos in Colorado. Kobach is also a former attorney for the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) - which has been labeled an anti-immigrant hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
RESOURCES
- The Top 10 Things You Should Know About Colorado's Latinos and Immigrants (Center for American Progress)
- 2012 Colorado Primary Election Profile (National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials)
- 2010 Colorado election eve polling (Latino Decisions)
- Analysis of immigration in the 2010 elections (America's Voice)
- Analysis of immigration in the 2008 elections (America's Voice)