Founded by Alliance for a Better Community
By Dario Frommer and Vanessa Aramayo
The stunning victory of three Latino candidates over longtime incumbents in Whittier, California City elections last month made national news and confirmed what many political demographers know: Latino voters are among the most influential untapped forces in American democracy.
In Whittier, Somos El Voto: Alliance for a Better Community Action Fund, a 501c4 organization, focused on reaching “High Opportunity” voters, commonly known as low-propensity voters, throughout Los Angeles County. Somos worked with other community-based organizations, knocked on thousands of doors and talked with Latino voters about their concerns and the importance of voting. What we learned: targeted outreach matters and voters responded by turning out en masse and shaking up the status quo at City Hall.
While the influence of Latino voters in American politics is growing, we remain among the most underinvested. Too often discussions by candidates, campaigns and political parties reduce millions of Latino voters to data points rather than recognizing us as communities embedded in everyday civic life. We are neighbors, families, entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers, teachers, essential workers, students, new Americans, fourth+ generation US born, and more—deeply woven into the fabric of this country—and when we are meaningfully engaged, we do not just participate, we shape outcomes.
Since 1992, the Latino electorate in the US has expanded from roughly nine million eligible voters to more than 33 million in 2024, reshaping outcomes across local, state, and national elections. Yet approximately 40% of Latino voters were not contacted by either political party in the last General Election.
Among those parties, California Democrats have had every resource and every advantage, yet their persistent underinvestment in Latino communities has left the party exposed in a state it assumed was safe. The possibility of two Republicans advancing from a June primary is not a fluke, it is the predictable consequence of a party that confused a growing Latino population with a guaranteed Latino vote. Voters who feel unseen don’t disappear; they disengage, and disengagement has a ballot.
Latino Californians make up roughly 40% of the state’s population and represent nearly one in three voters but vote at rates well below that share. That gap represents one of the highest-return opportunities in American politics: dollars spent on Latino outreach are more likely to move actual vote totals than equivalent spending on already-saturated voter pools. In a cycle where margins will be decided by turnout differentials, not persuasion, ignoring this is a mistake.
2026 makes this urgent. Statewide offices—governor, attorney general, key legislative seats–are on the ballot, and several races are expected to be competitive. Latino voters are concentrated in the districts where these contests will be decided: the Central Valley, the Inland Empire, and Los Angeles County.
Across our communities, affordability remains the defining issue. Housing, healthcare, gas, and groceries are daily pressures shaping how families think about government and civic participation. Messaging that ignores these realities continues to miss the mark. If campaigns want to reach Latino voters, they must speak to what matters to us most.
At the same time, the current cultural and political moment demands attention, federal immigration enforcement activity and policy debates in 2025–2026 have heightened civic urgency, driving spikes in voter registration and engagement in previously underrepresented communities.
The motivation is here. What’s missing is long-term, local, tailored investments. It’s voter outreach programs outside of political campaigns or parties and only during election season. It’s dollars being spent in local communities for in-person outreach. It’s recognizing that “Latino outreach” goes beyond commercials on Spanish TV media.
The weakening of the Voting Rights Act has made it easier for disenfranchisement to take hold and more important than ever before to activate voters – especially those that are not voting. Political rhetoric around immigration, including conversations about denaturalization, creates fear and uncertainty even among U.S.- born Latinos. Enforcement actions and intimidation tactics can further suppress participation.
Local results show what is possible. In Whittier’s General Municipal Election, voter participation more than doubled. Of the voters Somos el Voto contacted and identified as supporters, 1 in 4 cast a ballot. In a climate designed to discourage participation, that is not a small thing. This is what happens when voters are reached through trusted messengers who speak directly to their concerns.
The Latino electorate is not monolithic and that is an opportunity. Local, tailored, culturally relevant outreach in both Spanish and English that speaks to distinct community concerns can build durable, long-term coalitions rather than one-cycle mobilization. Without that investment, entire communities risk becoming civic deserts, disconnected from the political process.
The path forward is clear. Sustained, meaningful investment in Latino voter outreach and engagement, especially in historically overlooked communities, is essential.
Long-term infrastructure yields compounding returns: investing now builds trusted messengers, voter lists, and organizational capacity that will shape elections in 2028 and beyond. But the window for impact is narrowing. Many of the most effective organizations require early-cycle investment to scale, and late funding is far less efficient.
Latinos are not a peripheral constituency; they are central to the present and future of American elections. At a time when democracy feels increasingly fragile, expanding participation and ensuring inclusion is one of the most effective ways to strengthen it.
Dario Frommer is a former California State Assembly Majority Leader and founding Board Member of Somos el Voto. Vanessa Aramayo is President of Somos el Voto: Alliance for a Better Community Action Fund.
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