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Latino voter turnout expected to be low in Houston mayoral election
FOX 26 News Reporter Maria Salazar
HOUSTON - In a city where almost half of residents are Latino and make up about a quarter of all registered voters, few are expected to vote for Houston’s next mayor.
“In this election, they’re likely to represent about 12 percent of the people who actually cast a ballot,” said Dr. Mark Jones, professor of political science at Rice University.
Jones believes having a Latino candidate could help Latino turnout. He cites how in the last mayoral election, Adrian Garcia ran and Latinos represented 15 percent of all who cast ballots.
However, overall, Latino voter participation is typically low, particularly in local elections.
“The fact that it’s a local election there’s always a lot less information,” Angelica Razo told FOX 26. Razo is the Texas Deputy Director for Mi Familia Vota, or My Family Votes, a national non-partisan organization looking to increase Latino civic engagement. The organization collaborates with other groups across the country to register Latino voters and get them to the polls.
She believes candidates do not do enough to reach Latinos.
“We will always try to encourage candidates and people running for office to never, ever dismiss the Latino vote just because they haven’t historically voted, doesn’t mean that that’s not changing,” Razo added.
Jones says so far only candidate Tony Buzbee has tried to reach Latinos but just in the last couple of weeks through campaign ads in Spanish and featuring Latinos.
However, according to a survey led by the University of Houston about 43 percent of Latinos are expected to favor the incumbent, Mayor Sylvester Turner and Buzbee about 13 percent.
“They know Mayor Turner,” Jones explained. “He’s been in office for four years. They’re relatively satisfied with the job he’s doing and I don’t think Tony Buzbee has done an especially effective job of reaching out to the Latinos.”
If the race is close, Latino voters are enough to decide the election.
“If they turn out in large numbers and cast a vote for Turner, that could push him over the top and allow him to avoid a runoff with Tony Buzbee,” Jones concluded.