Much is being made of incumbent Victor Carrillo's loss in the Republican Primary for Railroad Commissioner, as well as incumbent Leo Vasquez' loss in the Harris County Republican Primary for Tax Assessor Collector. There's a universal hue and cry (including from Carrillo), "There's no place for Latinos in the Texas Republican Party!"And, I certainly agree with that conclusion. The Texas GOP is not Latino-friendly.
But, I had to wonder what was going on in Harris County Democratic Primary Election when I started seeing the results come in last night. Why were candidates with Latino last names losing big? Well, to be fair, that was not universally true. For example, in uncontested Primary races, Latino candidates won - right, that's not much of a diversity accomplishment. Check it out for yourself and tell me what you think (results here). I know I'm going to get comments on how Harris County has current Democratic Latino officeholders (Adrian Garcia, is an example). I get that. I'm asking if having a Latino last name is a disadvantage in a contested Primary in Harris County.
Some folks with Latino surnames who were on the losing end of the vote in Harris: Linda Chavez Thompson, Hector Uribe, Larry Hinojosa, Anthony Referente, Javier Valenzuela, Sandra Pubchara-Munoz, Robert Cardenas, Raymond Sanchez, Jr. There were some exceptions. Julia Maldonado is in a runoff. Mary Conneally Acosta won her race. I'm probably missing some folks in both categories - it's a long ballot! Juliet Stipeche lost her race - she's Latina, but without a Latina last name.
I suspect what happened here is what usually happens in Harris County - Latino voters turned out in extremely low numbers. African American turnout was probably high, and some of the contested races had an African American and a Latino. Do those scenarios account for what I'm seeing? Anybody disagree with me or have any other thoughts? Please leave a comment!
5 comments:
There is a difference. The GOP primary voters don't vote for Hispanics.
The Hispanics in the Democratic Party don't vote.
It gets the same results.
Larry Hinojosa had a african-american female in his race.
Anthony Referente started the camapign later than his opponents and also suffered from the female voting bias.
Javier Valenzuela may have suffered from an hispanic surname, but he also was subject the the party's ballot error and lost votes because of that.
Sandra Pubchara-Munoz, also had an african-american female in her race.
Robert Cardenas, also had an african-american female in her race
I agree with coby's analysis, I don't think it was a bias against hispanics as much as they did not support their own candidates as much as the black community supported theirs.
Great data points, anonymous - thanks! I'm a big fan of people working hard and smart to get their vote out.
Seems hard to analyze the Carrillo and Vasquez losses in the R Party without also acknowledging the Eva Guzman win, the Roy Morales win with 58% in a 5 person field (which would normally produce a runoff), and also the Fernando Herrera win over an apparent Anglo in St Rep 148.
FWIW, Anthony Referente is Asian-American (Filipino).
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