This year’s general election saw Latino voters help catapult President-elect Donald Trump to a sweeping victory.

Experts around the country were shocked by the results, but Julio Ricardo Varela, founder of The Latino Newsletter, said he’s been talking about this voting bloc’s shift to the right for years.

“Latinos have always been more politically independent — conservative-lite,” Varela said. “I’ve talked to hundreds of voters over the years. I’ve been in contact with so many Latino organizations over the years. This is a moment. Latino vote 1.0 is over. We are now in Latino vote 2.0.”

Esmy Jimenez, reporter at The Boston Globe, said part of the problem is a lack of knowledge and awareness about the diversity of Latinos, and how this community is viewed by politicians and campaigns.

“Not only are we not a monolith, we’re actually a huge kaleidoscope of people,” Jimenez said. “And to ever try to get down to one minute of just political talk is just not the way to do it at all. And in fact, the best way to probably engage with people from different walks of life — that are 65 million people in the United States — is with some nuance and reflecting through the different needs of each community.”

So what worked for Trump? Varela said creating an “us versus them” environment was effective for the incoming president’s campaign.

“The Trump campaign was very effective in pitting Latino communities against each other. ‘Hey, you’re first generation, you’re a new citizen. Hey, you’re part of us. You’re part of the United States. You’re not part of Central America anymore.’ That played,” Varela said.

Both Jimenez and Varela said generational differences — specifically those further away from the immigrant experience — also helped Trump win with many Latinos.

Trump’s campaign leaned heavily on the issue of mass deportation, with his newly named border czar Tom Homan stating that mixed-status families who want to stick together can be deported together.

Jimenez said the notion is concerning for her as someone who benefited from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy. She said it’s not just the threat of mass deportation; it’s the misinformation attached to hate- and fear-mongering messages from officials about undocumented immigrants.

“Undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens when it comes to violent crimes, drug crimes, even for property crimes, actually,” Jimenez said, citing this study from the National Institute of Justice. “Think about it. Immigrants — especially if they have any kind of status that is not permanent — they’re going to be more mindful. They actually don’t want to be doing anything that could bring negative attention to them, both for their own personal safety, their safety of their family, and honestly, being mindful that you don’t ever want your community to be represented poorly. I think when it comes to being a person of color or a Latino person, you’re mindful and always try to do your best, because if people judge you, they don’t just judge you, they judge your whole community for it.”

Despite losing the White House, Democrats still made history this year by electing Ruben Gallego to the U.S. Senate, beating Trump-backed Republican Kari Lake. He will become the first Latino to represent Arizona in the Senate.

“His successful campaign will become a case study moving forward for Democrats to say, ‘How do we reach Latino men, and how do we look at a place like Arizona to have a candidate that might win independents over some more?’” Varela said. “The case of Gallego is an example of ‘This is what happens when you meet people where they’re at.’ And it could lead to victory. And it did.”

All that and more on this week’s Latinx news roundtable!

Guests

  • Julio Ricardo Varela, MSNBC columnist, founder of The Latino Newsletter
  • Esmy Jimenez, Boston Globe reporter