One of the emerging storylines from today's vote is how voting blocks that came out for Trump two years ago are flipping. One of those blocks is Latino voters.
Cami Dominguez covers immigrant communities for the San Francisco Public Press. She joined us in studio to share her insights.
I've been covering Latinos in San Francisco for a couple years now, and the Latino vote is incredibly complex and, you know, it's years far from a monolith, so there's a lot of intricacies that go into that. But Latinos have been consistent in showing up to the polls. So again, can't speak for the whole community, but I can wholeheartedly say that the top issue that comes up essentially in every single interview that I do is affordability. I have spoken to sources that have told me that before, the biggest concern was, "How are we gonna get these people to pay their rents?" It's the cost of living in California and in the Bay Area specifically has been so increasing, and rent has always been top of mind. But nowadays, people are struggling to buy basic necessities. Latinos are really at the intersection of a lot of inaffordability. In fact, there is a UCLA study that shows that Latino men are the most impacted by rising gas prices. And so, yeah, Latinos at the center of a lot of the affordability crisis. There was a woman that I spoke to for this story that I reported that was saying that the food distributions that she goes to every Friday are essentially the only full meal she gets every week, and that's just once a week.
