Can Hispanics Be Elected to Statewide or National Office From Texas?
We are becoming a significant voting block but will Hispanics ever become significant statewide or nationwide leaders from Texas. It can be reasonably argued that the 67% of Hispanics who voted for Barack Obama made the difference in his being elected. No doubt the political punch of Hispanic voters now counts in major elections, however, their ability to get governorships and senate seats continues to be limited.
Hispanics as a group overall across the nation are a diverse ethnic group. The spectrum of political idealization runs from extremely conservative Venezuelans and older Cubans to extremely liberal New York Dominicans. However, the fact is that often they will vote somewhat in majority or nearly a majority for a candidate as they did for Bush in 2004 and Obama in 2008. So their diversity would not keep them from voting for a Hispanic candidate.
Although Hispanics are the largest minority they are still a minority in the state of Texas. Currently they account for 25 to 33% of the population in the state. Fifty percent of all Hispanics in Texas live in in five counties: Harris, Bexar, Dallas, El Paso, and Hidalgo. Another four counties have between 500,000 to 100,000 Hispanics each. Thus they are concentrated in certain areas of state.
Political bartering between the power brokers of both political parties in Texas has resulted in gerrymandered districts for federal and state office that tend to guarantee a candidate for one party or another. There are very few swing areas in the State of Texas. Many of us, Hispanic baby boomers, can remember the days when even though in South Texas we were more than 80% of population we had no Hispanic representation in government even locally.
The advancement of civil rights and the loyalty of the Hispanics to the Democratic party that was increasingly fostered following World War II was rewarded by the granting of these Hispanic districts. Areas where Hispanics are the dominant population such as in South Texas routinely see Hispanic candidates often running against Hispanic candidates usually in the Democratic party primary which serves as the real election.
These elections are reminiscent of the ethnic local elections in America’s urban centers during the early 20th century. Ethnic identification and branding to the accepted local norm become the most important ingredients for political success. For example, in a recent race for a local state judgeship, a local Hispanic Princeton graduate Republican was soundly defeated by another locally educated Democratic Hispanic with several arrests for driving while intoxicated who campaigned solely on his genuineness as a local candidate. He successfully portrayed his Republican opponent as an outsider.
This isolated world of political engagement that occurs in these Hispanic areas may be a fertile ground for grooming local leaders but is it damaging Hispanic’s ability to be able to run in state wide elections?
In 2002, an ideal chance for a Hispanic candidate to take a statewide office occurred when Antonio Sanchez, Jr., a millionaire oilman Mexican American from Laredo, Texas decided to run for governor. The Democratic primary leading to Mr. Sanchez’s nomination was a very controversial race. Those familiar with South Texas and Hispanic politics know that one of the rules of Hispanic politics in Texas is that it they can get negative and dirty.
Dan Morales, the Texas Attorney General, at the time had recently won a large tobacco settlement for the State of Texas. However, he was found to been involved in wrongly to trying to reward private representation in excess of what they deserved and also his brother was convicted of political misconduct. When Mr. Morales lost the primary, he endorsed Rick Perry, the Republican candidate, rather than endorse Sanchez.
Mr. Sanchez was a widely traveled and well educated man who came from a politically savvy family. He was well acquainted with the business world but had not held political office. By the time of the election he was only able to get about 30% of the vote and did not run again. No doubt his lack of political experience in running a political campaign and also the lack of Hispanic experience as a whole in running a statewide campaign to appeal to the majority hampered his chance for success.
Recently, Texas legislator, Rick Noriega, a Mexican American from Houston ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate. Mr. Noriega’s campaign was disorganized and not well supported initially but he did not run as a typical ethnic candidate. Smart political maneuvering by the incumbent Republican, John Cornyn, resulted in early endorsements from Democratic Hispanic leaders in South Texas against Noriega.
At times in his campaign he seemed unsure how to frame his ethnicity. He was criticized by the politically influential magazine, Texas Monthly, for not rushing early on to get endorsement in South Texas from Hispanic democrats. In retrospect, I think Mr. Noreiga did the right thing by not painting himself as primarily a Mexican-American candidate for governor. He suffered more from a poorly organized statewide Democratic party than he did from delayed South Texas endorsements which could have backfired on him statewide.
Hispanic success in the United States has allowed us to preserve our own subculture to a greater degree than just about any other immigrant group. We take pride in our Spanish language media and our ethnic neighborhoods in Miami, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and the Rio Grande Valley. At the same time, we need to be careful that we are not seen as a separate culture apart from the whole.
Both political parties in the recent Presidential election treated Hispanics as if the only issue they cared about was immigration. Major news media assumes Hispanics only watch Spanish language media as do politicians, so that there are now almost no Hispanic journalists in English language media. The shrinking National Association of Hispanic Journalists has been warning of this important issue for some time. Nick Jimenez, a columnist for the Corpus Christi Caller Times, describes the true reality of Hispanics in Texas quote “Now being Hispanic in Texas means the immigrant who arrived last month and who can’t speak a word of English and the Mexican-American who celebrates Cinco de Mayo but that’s the only Spanish they know.”
Hispanics have made significant political progress over the past 40 years but it may be reasonably argued that we are creating a separate world for ourselves within America. The candidacy of Barack Obama was very different from that of the “ethnically correct” Jessie Jackson. Leaders in the Hispanic community need to begin to talk in terms of American issues and not just Hispanic issues. Hispanic Democratic political campaigns in Texas need to become a more civilized discussion of issues without the dirt. Mr. Obama embracing his rival Hillary Clinton was a brilliant political move that should teach all Hispanic politicians a valuable lesson.
As a subgroup in society, Hispanics must be careful not to become culturally isolated in our institutions, neighborhoods, schools, and our responsibilities in government. We have won the right to vote but we need to do more to get on the ballot.
Tony Magaña grew up in McAllen Texas, attended Texas A&M University, served as an officer in the Army Reserve, and holds a doctorate from Harvard University. The co-founder of Contempo Magazine has participated in Valley business for over 20 years.He is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
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