Chicago Mayoral Runoff candidates have to put in the work to win over Latino voters

Chicago Tribune, Mar 13, 2023 at 3:14 pm, https://bit.ly/3KlIvrh

As Chicago’s second-largest racial and ethnic group and one of its fastest-growing demographics, Latinos have a powerful voice in determining the future of Chicago in the mayoral runoff.

Securing the Latino vote is a path to victory, but candidates Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas have a lot of work to do, and it is going to take more than endorsements to earn our vote. February’s election results made one thing resoundingly clear: Latino voters are not voting by identity politics but rather by political ideology and issues.

North Side Latino voters gave Johnson the surge?he needed to secure a spot in the runoff. Even though they covered a small area of the city, Latino voters in neighborhoods such as Logan Square, Rogers Park, Uptown and Avondale turned out in large numbers. Vallas also did well in Latino-majority wards, on the Northwest and Southeast sides.

While Johnson and Vallas both ran effective campaigns that propelled them to the runoff,?nearly half of Chicago voters supported other candidates?— and neither candidate made significant gains on the West and South sides, especially among Latino voters.

The runoff candidates are going to have to put in the work to convince Latino voters they have real plans, not just talking points, to address the issues that matter most to us and demonstrate they recognize our significant contributions to the overall well-being of our city.

Latino voters are looking for a mayor who will deliver on promises of keeping our streets safe, making housing affordable and accessible, creating better jobs, building stronger schools and investing in our communities.

We are seeking equity and the opportunity to participate in how our city is run. We want a mayor who will prioritize hiring and appointing top leadership positions that reflect the demographics of our city.

We want a mayor who values the more than?$97 billion Latinos contribute?to our metro gross domestic product and who will provide investment and resources to grow that impact, proportionate to the needs of our community.

While we want a mayor who supports the Latino community, we do not want a candidate who will pit Black and brown communities against each other to compete for resources. A majority of voters want a mayor who understands Chicago’s Black and brown communities.?According to a poll?released in mid-February by Northwestern University and a coalition of Black and Latino nonprofits that oversampled Chicago’s Latino and Black voters — two groups often underrepresented by other polls — 70% of Latino and Black Chicagoans agree that our communities would be better off if we worked together instead of working on issues separately.

To draw attention to this point, groups such as the Illinois Latino Agenda, a coalition of 26 leaders from Latino-serving organizations, are working with partner organizations to host a Black and brown mayoral debate ahead of the runoff. Additionally, the ILA and its member organizations, the Hispanic Federation, La Casa Norte, the Puerto Rican Cultural Center and others launched a voter outreach campaign,?VotaYaChicago.com, to increase Latino voter participation. The campaign includes knocking on the doors of 10,000 Latino households, sending 260,000 text messages, making about 130,000 calls and placing a public service announcement in Spanish-language media.

The Latino community and its leaders are doing their part to make our issues known and provide opportunities for candidates to garner our vote, but it is up to the mayoral candidates to do their part to engage us. Speak to us, inspire us, mobilize us and show us that you are ready to invest time, effort and resources to meet the needs of Chicago’s Latino communities — not just during the election, but for the long run — and you will win our vote.

Jose Mu?oz is co-chair of the Illinois Latino Agenda and CEO of La Casa Norte,?a nonprofit that helps unhoused youths and families.