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    • Trump gets more support from Latino voters in Milwaukee
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    Trump gets more support from Latino voters in Milwaukee

    Harry Posted on

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    President-elect Donald Trump has made gains among Latino voters in Milwaukee and the rest of Wisconsin, part of a national trend that has helped the Republican Party move to a second term in the White House.

    Kamala Harris won a majority of Latino votes in Milwaukee and the state on Nov. 5, but Trump narrowed the gap and continued to shrink the Democratic margin in Hispanic neighborhoods.

    Building on gains in Hispanic neighborhoods in 2020, Trump fared better with voters in predominantly Hispanic areas of the city than he did four years ago. Harris, meanwhile, performed less well in the city’s Hispanic areas, receiving fewer votes than President Joe Biden’s four. by years ago Election data compiled and analyzed By John D. Johnson, a research associate at the Lubar Center at Marquette Law School.

    Latino advocates in Milwaukee believe some Latinos are embracing Trump because of frustration over the lack of implementation of economic and immigration reform.

    “I think more than anything there is a false hope in Trump that rejects the status quo,” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of the immigrant and Latinx advocacy group Voces de la Frontera. “People are feeling the pain of economic problems, and although progress is being made, people feel like it’s not enough.”

    Wisconsin election officials do not collect race or ethnicity data on voters; so analysts look at the election results of neighborhoods where the racial or ethnic group is the majority to help gauge voting trends among these groups.

    Participation was high statewide but flat in Milwaukee

    Voter turnout in Wisconsin exceeded 3.4 million; this was the highest number of voters in any presidential election in the state’s history. But in Milwaukee, attendance remained relatively steady. Unofficial results show nearly 249,000 Milwaukeeans voted in this election; this figure is only slightly higher than in 2020.

    Although Latinos make up a small percentage of Wisconsin voters, small swings in voting patterns can make a difference in elections like this one, where Trump wins Wisconsin by about a percentage point or less.

    In Milwaukee’s predominantly Hispanic voting wards (more than 70% of adults are Hispanic), Harris garnered nearly 7,600 votes, or nearly 72% of the votes cast in those wards, according to unofficial results. Trump won those wards by about 2,800 votes, or about 26% of the vote.

    Harris received hundreds of fewer votes than Biden did in those wards four years ago, according to Johnson’s data, or about 800 fewer. Meanwhile, Trump received nearly 500 more votes in these wards.

    Trump got more votes from Latinos despite promising “mass deportation” and remarks about immigrants”poison the blood of our countryDuring the campaign, Trump highlighted examples of undocumented immigrants accused of violent crimes and promoted debunked claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, ate pets.

    Trump’s words about the economy and the border aroused interest

    But for some Latino voters, Trump’s promises to improve the economy and stem record immigration at the U.S. southern border appealed to them.

    “The border is out of control,” Anawilda Guerra said after voting Tuesday at the OASIS Senior Center on Milwaukee’s south side.

    This was Guerra’s first time voting in a presidential election. He lived in Milwaukee for several years after moving from Puerto Rico. Among the issues that came to mind on Tuesday were immigration, the economy and abortion, which he opposes.

    He did not blame Trump for comments comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made at a Trump rally days before the election, calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”

    “I understand this is not Donald Trump,” he said in Spanish.

    Republicans revive outreach center on city’s south side

    Wisconsin Republicans Spanish social assistance center opened on the city’s near south side earlier this year, after the national party abandoned its own headquarters in the city last year.

    The center, at 13th Street and Greenfield Avenue, served as a base for GOP outreach efforts ahead of the election.

    “This was a great move on our part because we wanted to be visible in the community. “We wanted people to know we were here,” said Marty Calderon, who runs the center.

    Republican Sen. Ron Johnson visited the office in late October, where he told a crowd of about 30 people that a second Trump administration would not deport all undocumented immigrants.

    “There will be no mass deportation of 10 million people,” Johnson said, adding that Republicans need to be “realistic” about illegal immigration.

    In the final months of the campaign, Republican volunteers fanned out into the neighborhoods surrounding the center to connect with voters on sidewalks and in doorways.

    “Some of them were very willing to talk,” Calderon said. “And then there were people who didn’t really want to listen to what was coming from the party.”

    Calderon said he heard voters’ concerns about local and national security, the economy and the southern border.

    “If there are Latin Americans saying we need to secure our borders, I think that says a lot in itself,” he said, adding that the state Republican Party is considering keeping its position open on the south side.

    Darryl Morin, executive director of the advocacy group Forward Latino, pointed to the lack of immigration reform and the resulting tensions between different immigrant groups as one reason why some Latinos are disappointed with Democrats and their support for Trump.

    “After all these years, why haven’t Democrats been able to pass an immigration reform package? Morin asks, why can new refugees and asylum seekers get a work permit in a matter of weeks, while other immigrants have been here for years and wait years to apply and receive a work permit? he said.

    There were efforts by Democrats to get out the vote on the south side. Volunteers from Voces de la Frontera Action, who support Harris, knocked on doors and made calls urging residents to vote. Voces’ political advocacy arm is also get out the vote events with live music and food.

    But Neumann-Ortiz thinks Democrats waited too long to build support with Hispanic voters.

    “They waited very, very late in the year. It’s hard to scale,” he said. “This is a losing strategy. He doesn’t adequately appreciate what it takes. He takes the Latino vote for granted.”

    Harry
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