Politics Is Local, Even When It’s National
In this critical political year, NALEO works on campaigns up and down election-day tickets. This means keeping a diverse, growing Latino community engaged in everything from who becomes the local public works chief, to who’s elected president.
By Patricia Guadalupe
For nearly three decades the non-partisan National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund has devoted itself to ensuring Latinos in the United States become – and remain – engaged in the nation’s political process. This involves everything from drawing out the Latino vote to getting Latino candidates to throw their hats into the electoral ring.
The ability to grind out small political gains over time is the hallmark of successful political movements; the ground game is what NALEO is all about.
The nonprofit’s mission is making sure that the Latino community is not left out, at any level of politics. So NALEO works to guarantee that state and local election procedures are fair, and it advocates for Latinos and Latinas to win appointments to top positions in government.
Arturo Vargas is the NALEO Educational Fund CEO, and chief executive of the organization’s national membership group, comprised of some 6,800 elected and appointed Latino leaders. He’s been wearing both hats since 1994.
Vargas says keeping the organization focused on the greater goal is a challenge. It must focus equally, downticket from the presidential vote to local city council and county board elections.
Vargas spoke with palabra. about the group’s work in community participation during the 2020 election cycle..
His answers have been edited for greater clarity and for space.
palabra.: Do you see more of an interest in the election this year, more willingness for voters to participate?
Vargas: I think these major primaries coming up in March, where you have California and Texas and other states, will give us an indication of how engaged the Latino electorate is.
But if you look back at 2018 and you see the level of turnout for the midterm election,which, for Latinos, was on the very high end of turnout for a midterm, I believe there’s an upswing in interest in the (presidential) election, and I think, in large measure, it has to do with the reaction to the president’s agenda and rhetoric.
We know that anger and fear are powerful motivators. And for better or worse, there is a lot to be angry and fearful about right now.
palabra.: While this is a presidential election year, there are also state and local races. Why do you also consider those to be important and why is NALEO involved at that level?
Vargas: The national election gets the most attention because that’s where the money is for advertising. And, given that in some states such as California, the primary has been moved up, we’re seeing a lot of coverage of the candidates for the Democratic nomination.
But on that same ballot there are going to be many other contests at the state and local level. We remind Latino voters that local government officials have the most impact on their lives because they’re the ones making the decisions about the cities and local districts where they reside. And it shows in our research that people identify local elected officials as among the most credible messengers. Latino voters understand the importance of local government.
palabra.: What are you doing to make people more aware of their role in the political process?
Vargas: Our work on voter engagement tries to reach the Latino adult citizen who’s not even registered to vote, who has had no interest, or has given up hope in the political process. We’ve seen a lot of that in our research: people who think the political process doesn’t work for them.
It’s a heavy lift to engage these individuals, but we’ve learned that a better way to engage them (in the process) is to give them information about what the election includes, and the offices at stake This kind of on-the-ground, person-to-person engagement of Latino voters who haven’t participated before is what we’re looking for.
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