Even though young Latino voters have much at stake in the 2016 presidential election—from immigration reform to free college—it remains unclear as to whether they will turn out to the polls in large enough numbers this November to make a difference.
“The Latino youth have reasons to engage in the election. It’s going to take a concerted effort to do that. It should be easier than it’s ever been to do so,” de la Garza says.
“They have particular reasons for getting involved,” de la Garza says of young Latino voters, whose numbers are steadily growing. “If they get involved, they’re going to be overwhelmingly partisan vis-a-vis the Democratic Party.”
Indeed, according to Presidential Poll 2016—a survey conducted by the Hispanic Heritage Foundation and myCollege Options, a free online college planning service—60 percent of high school students who will be of voting age in time for the November election identified with the Democratic Party, compared to just 26 percent who identified as Republican.
Meanwhile, the number of Hispanic eligible voters—one of the fastest-growing groups in the United States—is projected to reach 27.3 million eligible voters in 2016, up from 19.5 million in 2008, according to the Pew Research Center.
“Most of this growth has come from U.S.-citizen Hispanics entering adulthood,” states a Pew article titled “Looking Forward to 2016: The Changing Latino Electorate,” noting that about 803,000 young U.S.-citizen Hispanics enter adulthood each year and are eligible to vote.
