>> Tonight, unleashing the Latino vote from battleground states of New York suburbs, a growing a diverse building block is transforming the political landscape, Latinos and Latinas went the age of 30.

White these young voters could sway the 2024 election and many more to come.

That and more as "MetroFocus" starts now.

♪ >> This is "MetroFocus," with Rafael Pi Roman, Jack Ford, and Jenna Flanagan.

MetroFocus is made possible by Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III.

Filomen M. D'Agostino Foundation.

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And by Jody and John Arnhold.

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Dr. Robert C. and Tina Sohn foundation.

The Ambrose Monell Foundation.

Estate of Roland Karlen.

>> And welcome to MetroFocus I am Jack Ford.

Latinos constitute one of the most rapidly expanding building blocks in American elections.

Not only do Latinos have the highest ratio of first time voters in the country, but that growth is fueled by young voters, Latinos are to the age of 30.

This youthful surge is concentrated in pivotal states like Arizona, Nevada, and Texas.

The numbers suggest votes could indeed prove decisive in 2024.

Went to the issues that matter most to them?

And what are Democrats and Republicans doing to get their votes?

In joining us now are Gabriel Sanchez, a professor of political science at the University of Mexico and fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Maria is a veteran television journalist, the anchor and executive producer of U.S. Latino you USA -- Latino USA, and we also have a former youth leader.

Welcome to all of you.

Thank you for joining us.

We have a lot to talk about.

Ahma, I will start with you.

I talked in the introduction about some of the findings of Brookings Institution' work and one of the things they highlight is the diverse nature of Latino votes.

I wanted you to start off by sharing some of the key findings on the makeup of your Latino voters.

>> Thanks for having me on, and you are exactly right.

Whenever we talk about any large population like Latinos we have to recognize they are incredibly diverse.

One of the things I like to start with is just how young the Latino electorate is.

Roughly 1/3 of all eligible Latino voters are under the age of 30, that is about 10% higher than the U.S. population overall.

When we are talking about Latino politics, we are talking about the youth vote.

>> What about geographically then?

I mentioned a little bit into introduction, but what are we talking about in terms of the funding of geographical distribution if you will?

>> Given that Latinos are young relative to the other parts of the population, particularly where I am in New Mexico and the American West.

If we think about key battleground states like Nevada, Arizona in particular, young Latinos under the age of 30 makeup 40% of all newly eligible voters in this region from the last election cycle, so I think they are relevant everywhere, but particularly out and the West, and you can imagine any battleground state where it will be a tight margin of victory for any candidate, this youth vote can definitely make the difference in the election.

>> Maria, let's bring you into the conversation.

You cannot put a label on a group and assume the entire group is going to think one way or act one way or vote one way.

From your perspective, how does this diversity within the group, how do you think it impacts the broader political landscape here?

>> Well, these conversations should be nationally every single week essentially.

Just sitting and talking for half an hour about the Latino, Latina, and LatinX voters.

What does it mean, how is it important?

Just having this conversation is a huge part of the impact why.

Why?

Because most people do not realize, and it is not the kind of headline that we see, but Latino, Latino voters of the second largest voting cohort in the United States.

Therefore what Latinos and Latinas think about, either political party, every single issue, participation, civic issues, this will essentially determine the future of our democracy.

I know people are like, she is getting too over-the-top.

This is the core our country and our politics need to understand that this particular group is there to be talked to, right?

They are ready to actually engage, even though the narrative is they are not engage, they are disengaged.

Not true.

In fact think about what happened in the last midterms.

The midterms that went blue, a lot of that had to do with Latina and Latino anticipation specifically with the youth vote, but I am not young.

[LAUGHTER] My older youth -- >> You will always be on in my eyes.

>> You have older voters who have been around for a while who are like if we do not get engaged in the political system what is going to happen, and you have younger voters like my kids and were climate and immigration and the economy are central points for them, and they will turn out, and they are talking to their friends so that they turn out, and I just wish we could talk about the hope that this potential electorate could deliver.

If only I felt that way about the parties, the parties felt this is such an important group that should be engaged the whole time.

>> Will get to that in a moment.

Let me ask you something.

This is a group that needs to be talked with, not talked at, but talked with to better understand them, so from your perspective here, as a young voter, community organizer, what do you feel are the issues that matter most to your community?

>> I think this is kind of a loaded question, because I think as was mentioned before we are such a diverse community, and we come from so many different backgrounds, we look so different, and I do not know if I can be the voice for the entire young LatinX community, but what I find to be most important as was mentioned before by Maria, climate is a really big thing.

Climate for your -- climate for all young people but especially people from disadvantaged neighborhoods.

We are affected in climate by unique way that is not necessarily seen?

>> How do you think that, because I think that is a compelling point?

>> When I think about this, I just think about how if you're from an area that does not have a lot of spaces that potentially has a lot of industrial production in your area, you may not have access to the types of environments they give you the room to, you know -- let me rephrase that.

I think in terms of climate, I come from New York City, which we know is a very highly industrial space, and I think that even in the space as industrial New York City, there are places that have green spaces, and there are places that do not.

There are places where you feel that industrial culture, and places you do not as much, and as young people we know that the climate crisis is real and this is not an issue we necessarily create that we are inheriting, and I think that it is just a problem that has always existed but feels unique to young people, and especially depending on where you come from feels more pressing.

>> Jack, let me join in.

This perspective about New York City, I am thinking about young voters whose parents working in New York City but let's say in any kind of migrant labor in the fields, where now for example in Texas the governor of Texas said farmworkers, they do not need water while they are working, even though we all lived through the hottest summer in the world, so you had that experience of young people who were watching their parents have to working conditions directly related to climate or who they themselves at one point had to leave their homes from wherever country because of climate, because of hurricanes that never used to happen, all of these kinds of things, then to take it to New York.

I remember reporting in Williamsburg.

Back 30 years ago when Williamsburg in that area it the most polluted area, who live there, Latinos, Puerto Ricans, immigrants, and now it is a different variety, they have green spaces.

They deserve those kinds of green spaces and that safe and healthy air quality, and it is something that young Latinos are definitely talking about.

They are feeling it on their skin.

>> Let's stay with the subject in terms of the issues that seem to be resonating, and we are focusing right now on the younger Latino community.

When are you seeing?

>> We do see in the data consistently when we ask what is the most important issue to you, we do see a couple of different demographics groups.

One are immigrants, foreign-born Latino eligible voters, those places are directly impacted by climate change and the ramifications from that, whether it is hurricanes, lack of water.

Those folks know acutely what the consequences are like, and to gather demographic group are particularly young voters, so when we ask people in focus groups and surveys, what do you think the future will look like for your children.

They are incredibly concerned about what the planet would look like when their young children grow up, and young people under the age of 30 will live a lot longer than those of us north of that age, and when they have kids and grandchildren they are incredibly worried about what the future looks like.

The other big policy issue that we saw probably more impactful than anything in 2022 was abortion and reproductive health care rights.

In fact, when we asked a large sample of voters what was your driving, mobilizing force for where you voted in 2022, among those under the age of 30 folks said that abortion and access to reproductive health care rights with their primary reason for concern.

42%, the primary reason, so I think that was a game changer.

>> Is that surprising?

Not that the issue exists but that the number is that high?

>> Absolutely, I've never seen abortion in the top 10 not to mention the top five, and a lot of folks once they saw in some of our survey data this would be an important issue they ran with the notion that Latinos are highly cap fake, all of these backdrops are no longer the reality.

There was a deception it would be good for Republicans.

A lot of anger directed at the Supreme Court moved Latinos toward the Democrats, and the primary reason for that is not that Latinos are more liberal on this issue, but overall they did not feel it is a government's right and responsibility to make these decisions for family and women, and that was a game changer that saved the Democrats in an election that could have been different from them.

>> What do you think about that?

>> As a young Latina, I am not surprised in terms of the way I think and what my peers think about the data, and this is not coming from knowledge of data that existed previously.

I just know the young LatinX population, especially young Latinos, we have a new sense of self that is different from the women that have come before me.

I come from a long line of young mothers.

I come from a long line of women that have many children, because I think culturally that is something we are told, that you need to bear children, and that is what you do.

You bear children and take care of your children, but now we see especially for young Latinas, we are pushed to go to school, was to wait until it is right for us or do not have children that all, and like was mentioned before it is not that every Latina things that abortion is right or something they have to do with not every path is the same and it is not government's right to make a decision for other people and whether or not they are to bear children.

So I am really great -- glad to hear that.

>> Coming back to a point, the generational differences we might be seeing here, is this an area where you might think it be reflected in terms of generational differences or not?

>> Think of this, Mexico, the country where I was born has legalized gay marriage and legalized the right to abortion.

Mexico is more progressive on these issues than the United States on the question of reproductive rights, so am I surprised?

I am fascinated.

That is fascinating even though in the Trump election I think that the evangelical vote targeting Latinos and Latinas specifically on the issue of abortion in Florida was something I did not think that targeting to end abortion would get these evangelists will -- evangelical voters to the polls.

This is a turn for the Democrats in the sense this is something that was not given, obviously the vote is not a given.

I also think it is very important, I love what you said about the younger generation.

I became politicized decades ago even before I was a citizen because of the environment, and because of the issue of Roe v. Wade.

This was the women's issue of the time.

I have no shame because I have been married for 32 years and I have adult children.

I am very honest about the fact that it was a choice afforded to me as a college student in New York City so that is why this conversation is so important.

We are revealing what we all know, but it is important for the national electorate to understand how Latinos and Latinos feel about this.

Latino and Latina voters can be moved on the abortion issue, but also to the right, so it is not a given.

>> That brings you into this conversation, because I wanted to ask about that in terms of party alignment.

What are we seeing about Republicans and Democrats recognizing the power that we are talking about here of the Latino community?

Are we seeing that they recognize and are we seeing that they are taking steps to somehow engage themselves with this community?

>> I would say the jury is still out on that question.

It appears there is more outreach, more money invested in mobilizing Latino voters, but every election cycle it seems like we are beating this drum.

When we have samples of confirmed voters half of those folks ain't nobody contacted them from either party, so it is one of these that there is some suggestion things are getting better in the park, but especially when we look at young Latina voters we consistently have the party is not reaching out to them and reaching them in ways that connects to the issues they carry -- they care about.

You have to reach people where they are and talk about the issues that they care about for it to have an impact.

>> One of the things you are involved in, you are an advocate and you want to get people out there to understand issues and to vote what are you doing to mobilize, to get them to understand how important it is to vote and what they have to do to make sure they can vote?

>> The work that my organization primarily does is we have a commitment to being bipartisan, so all of the information would provide an activities that we do that are high school-based is not necessarily to get them to vote one way or another but empower them to know that they can come to should, and I have the knowledge to vote however which way they choose.

Something that I have learned from talking from a lot of power young students of color and LatinX youth is they feel their vote does not matter, and this is substantiated by the fact that candidates are not reaching out from them, and I think candidates have for so long been able to bank on the LatinX about through identity politics, and that is something I feel really strongly about, because I think Democrats have assumed for a long time that you are a Democrat, because they assume we are uneducated and assume we do not care.

That has never been true, but especially not now.

Young LatinX voters are beginning to empower themselves and we are empowering each other through organizations such as mind where we are reaching out to young people and giving them the political and civic knowledge that they need to be invested and educated in all of the issues that are currently going on, both on a local and a federal level, and I have been seeing really great progress in our young LatinX community that we work with both of my organization and personal life about being invested in politics and knowing that they had the knowledge not to vote in the power to vote and that their vote does in fact the matter.

>> Jolene of mentions an interesting thing, to educate the younger generation, and that brings up the question of where do you get your information from?

And I know that some of what you look at answers that question for this group.

What did you find?

>> A couple of points and to reinforce his point that these voters do not care.

We talked to the voters who did not turn out in the last election, and overwhelmingly the main finding was that care, they want reform, they want things to be different but they do not see voting as a mechanism to bring about social change, and the realities young people of not seen that happen in their adult lifetime, so why would we expect them to believe voting is this powerful force to bring about the change that they went to see.

-- Figuring out the process, where you go to get accurate information, and we find in service -- if we know young Latino voters are getting their information digitally, we also know that is where everyone is trying to dissuade them, and we have got to be much more aware of that and be much more forceful for the powers that be to fix that.

That is why Latin voters are confused.

>> I have about two minutes.

Let me come to you for a sort of overarching issue.

Looking ahead to the 2024 election and tying in some of the thoughts we have here, how do you anticipate that the two parties will if they do at all reach out to this community we are talking about, and what do you anticipate the results might be in terms of bringing as Jolene says younger cohort into the process here?

>> I am speaking to you from Texas right now, and a lot of people are like Texas, Latinos, there was nothing to do.

Wrong.

Whether it is Texas, New York, Florida or states like North Dakota, which has the highest percentage of Latino-Latino population growth in the past decade, they want to be approached by the parties?

Why did Bernie Sanders end up taking Nevada?

That campaign actually reached out to Latino-Latino voters consistently, so their messages you need to reach out.

I actually think the Republican Party gets it -- How Latinos and Latinos, what they do, and how they think about democracy, how they participate does not just impact us.

It will impact the entire future of the United States.

>> This has been a fascinating conversation, and I want to thank you so much for bringing perspectives and your thoughtful comments on this.

I am hopeful we can continue this conversation, because there are a lot of things I wanted to get to and we did not have a chance to, but my thanks to all of you for contributing this process.

Thank you for having me.

>> You can take our award winning program -- Barbara Hope Zuckerberg.

And by Jody and John Arnhold.

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The Ambrose Monell Foundation.

Estate of Roland Karlen.

♪