In Wisconsin Latino voters are just 4 percent of all eligible voters. Regardless, due to the growing Latino community in the state, they see much importance in Tuesday’s primaries. The state saw “Day Without Latinos” protests take place about a month ago as the Latino community’s effort to make itself visible in showing how important they are to the state’s industries, such as the dairy industry. It was also used to oppose anti-immigrant bills in the Wisconsin Legislature.
The anti-immigrant legislation was shut down, Luz Sosa, an economist who teaches at Milwaukee Area Technical College, who participated in the protests, believes that Latinos played a big part in making it happen. Sosa is also rooting for Bernie Sanders, saying “I first heard about him two years prior to the election and I really like his ideas that he stood up for homeowners when the recession was happening.”
Sosa has been working in order to make sure Latinos have the correct photo identification to vote due to Wisconsin’s voter ID law. She says her college worked to make sure that the student’s identification met the criteria for voting identification before the law was even passed. The 2014 Census stated that Wisconsin’s Hispanic population had surpassed the African American population as the largest minority group in the state.
During the Mexican Revolutions, many Mexican’s migrated to Wisconsin. From the 1940s to the 1960s, thousands of temporary Latino workers came as part of the Bracero guestworker program. “The things that connect us to Wisconsin is we are hard working, just like Wisconsinites, we are very friendly and we love our families,” said Sosa, who came from Argentina when her father, a U.S. citizen, received a good job in Glendale, Wisconsin.
While Latinos are more likely to vote Democrat, there is a present Latino republican population in Wisconsin. Daryl Morin of Wisconsin’s Hispanic Republicans said, “We [Latino Republicans] would be more if we could ever get past the issue of immigration and the way it’s been treated.” Morin said he planned on voting and working with acquaintances in other states in order to certify Trump did not receive the required delegates to win and make sure “more moderate or true conservative wins.”
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