The Future American Electorate: Maria Teresa Kumar
October 31st, 2024
”The strength of our democracy is our vote.”
We discuss why American democracy should not treat the Latino community as a monolith, what actually matters to this community, and how the strength of their engagement in U.S. democracy will play out in this year’s presidential election.
Maria Teresa Kumar is the President and CEO of Voto Latino, a civic engagement organization focused on educating and empowering a new generation of Latino voters, as well as creating a more robust and inclusive democracy.
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Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guest: Maria Teresa Kumar
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producer: Zack Travis
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Maria Teresa Kumar Transcript
Mila Atmos: [00:00:00] This is our last episode before Election Day and before we start the show, I urge all of you to vote early and of course, vote by November 5th at the very latest. As we've said many times, every vote counts. Truly, every vote counts. Also, be sure to vote all the way down ballot and maximize your impact by getting more people to the polls. And by that I mean your friends, your family, your colleagues at work or at school. Everybody in your network. Compel them to come out and vote, too. With each passing day, it becomes more and more clear that there's only one pro-democracy candidate on the ticket this year, and that candidate is Vice President Harris. The Republican candidate is not only the instigator of January 6th, but he has also sown division and chaos with his big lie. Not to mention he's convicted in the court of law of falsifying business records and sexual assault.
Our episode today is a conversation with the president and CEO of Voto Latino, Maria Teresa Kumar, which we recorded a few weeks ago. And in light of Trump's hate filled rally in Madison Square Garden last Sunday, I thought it would be appropriate to share part of her response to the vitriol and the words of hate towards the Latino community on X. "Trump and Republicans are reminding us of their animosity toward each and every Latino. With days until the election, they're openly and proudly doubling down on their true intentions of making Latinos the enemy within if they win back the white House. Their platform is xenophobia, and specifically, hatred for Latinos. One thing is for certain, another four years of Trump puts our communities at risk of violence of the highest order. It is clear that he will not stop when it comes to targeting Latinos and his enablers will cheer. So it is essential that everyone votes who can. Trump has firmly put racism on the ballot, and it's up to all of us to defeat it."
And with those words from Maria Teresa, here is our episode.
Mila Atmos: [00:02:18] Welcome to Future Hindsight, a podcast on a mission to spark civic action. I'm your host, Mila Atmos. I'm a global citizen based in New York City, and I'm deeply curious about the way our society works. So each week, I bring you conversations to cut through the confusion around today's most important civic issues and share clear, actionable ways for us to build a brighter future together. After all, democracy is not a spectator sport. Tomorrow starts right now.
We've heard for years now that Latinx voters will eventually tip elections in favor of Democrats forever, because they continue to increase in number at more than 65 million people, they currently make up about 20% of the U.S. total population. We're also hearing that Latinx communities are traditional and anti-abortion, and that they actually vote Republican. Both of those competing narratives treat Latinos as a monolith and as a stereotype. But what actually matters to this community? How are they engaged in US democracy? Most importantly, how will that play out in this year's presidential election?
To unpack these questions, we're joined by Maria Teresa Kumar. She's the president and CEO of Voto Latino, a civic engagement organization focused on educating and empowering a new generation of Latinx voters, as well as creating a more robust and inclusive democracy. Welcome, Maria Teresa. Thank you for joining us.
Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:03:56] Thanks for having me.
Mila Atmos: [00:04:00] At Voto Latino, your campaigns and programming aim to and I'm quoting your website now, shepherd the Latinx community towards full realization of its political power. So when I read something like this, I have two thoughts. The first is: what does a full realization of political power mean? And the second is: what do you intend to do with that power? We know that we cannot effectuate change without power. So how would you describe that vision of having a full realization of political power?
Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:04:34] Thanks so much for having me on the show and thanks for this conversation. You know, when we started, I'd like to say Voto Latino this year we are 20 years young. And when we set about to work on Voto Latino, the idea was that Latinos had just become the second largest demographic of Americans. But the majority of us were under the age of 18 years old and we found ourselves in pockets like Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Colorado, places that were no longer the coasts of where you expected Latinos to be. And because our population was rising so quickly against the backdrop of a majority that was disproportionately white, how were we going to be prepared for what we knew was going to be a backlash against the browning of their schools and their communities? And I say this because I grew up in California, when Governor Pete Wilson convinced our neighbors to vote for the original Show Me Your Paper laws. It was proposition 187. And Sonoma, the town that I grew up in, is
progressive by every means. The city council is progressive, the state legislators representative is progressive. The congressperson is progressive. And yet our neighbors were the first to go to the streets and do the bidding of proposition 187. So if in the late 80s early 90s in my hometown of progressive California, we can turn against each other, what was going to happen in these towns in Georgia and North Carolina with such a legacy of racial incidents and segregation? And so when we talk about full realization of political power of the Latino community and of Americans is making sure that we are at the table actively voting and making demands of legislation that makes sure that our communities are not just protected, but equally as important that we have the access of information, of resources, of investments to make sure that any child in this country, regardless of zip code, has an equal education, and that there are still rails of opportunity to ensure that every single American is living a thriving middle class. We can sit here and talk about all of the markers of the Latino community. When it comes to, we're considered the 11th largest marketplace in the world for GDP just by our purchasing power. But simultaneously, we have one of the highest risks when it comes to diabetes. We have one of the highest risks when it comes to attaining a four year degree. And so those are the conversations we need to have. How can we reconcile this idea that the Latino community, because we're disproportionately young, we happen to be the economic engine of this country. But I often say the Latino community, we are the invisible that make the visible happen every single day. And so the purpose of Voto Latino is, let's get out of those shadows. Let's make sure that we're contributing, that we're registering, that we're voting, that we're running for office because it does little to resist the system. I believe we occupy the Democratic chambers of power so that we could actually have policies that reflect the lifting of of all communities.
Mila Atmos: [00:07:53] Well said. Thanks for giving us this broad overview from the time of passing prop 187 in California to a future vision. And so Voto Latino, as you just mentioned, was founded 20 years ago. Where are we today? How would you describe this current moment in a snapshot?
Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:08:13] I think this current moment is very much because of the political awakening of the Latino community. I mean, I was, you know, the hubris of being 28 years old, that you can come and shake up the political establishment and that it was going to happen overnight. But I will tell you that when you choose to run political campaigns, it's done through a very static lens. How many voters do I have right now?
By that measure, we would never have been prepared for this moment because Voto Latino in 2010, when the official census came out, we identified what were the folks that had, yes, 2% eligible voters that were Latino in a place like Georgia, but that had 16% of the classrooms, were those young people were going to age in to be eligible voters. So by that measure, we've been laying the groundwork for this moment, where our first case study was Colorado. I'll share the states that we focused on. While we're a national organization, we focus on really engaging and mobilizing Latino community in Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Arizona, Texas, and Florida. With the exception of Florida, every single state that I mentioned has an aging Latino population that is younger than the older voter in that community. And so at a quick clip, we recognize the opportunity that we start building bases and political power. Colorado is now solidly a blue state because the voter registration gap was closed. In Arizona, became purple. Nevada became purple. Pennsylvania is purple. All the states that we chose are literally the states that every single election in the last four cycles, people are saying "what's going to happen?" And it's because disproportionately the base of the Latino community is aging in so quickly. Just a brief example. In Arizona, Voto Latino registered 32,000 folks who turned out to vote in that year. 19,000 were first time voters. Biden won that election by 10,400 votes. There are 163,000 Latino youth that have turned 18 in Arizona alone since the last election. That's massive opportunity.
Mila Atmos: [00:10:37] Well, clearly, the fact that you're building power in this moment is not missed because recently in Texas, the attorney General ordered raids on several Latino election activists, including the chair of the Tejano Democrats, several members of LULAC, which is the League of United Latin American Citizens, a state House candidate, and a local area mayor. So obviously, people know that your power is increasing. What are your plans for the future in terms of balancing that power and building more power, and at the same time remaining undeterred by these attempts to be silenced?
Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:11:15] When the Voting Rights Act was gutted by the Supreme Court, the most underreported story was that Shelby County, the county that brought the case up to the Supreme Court, had experienced a 200% increase in the Latino population that decade. 200%. And every single jurisdiction that followed, in quick order, 22 jurisdictions in three short months had all experienced a minimum of a
90% increase in their Latino population in that decade. And so we took what they were doing very seriously. So that year, going into 2014, we actually started collecting, not the fun stuff, collecting records, setting up databases, identifying our voters, knowing how many people we were registering, knowing who we were, who might be at fault because we were prepared to sue the different states, recognizing that who they were going to disenfranchise were the very people that we were trying to register to participate. I'll give you, you mentioned the example of Texas. In Texas in 2020, the Republican led legislature and Governor Abbott certified that the 2020 election was fair and free, that it was above board, that there were no anomalies. On January 6th, when they got back into session of 2021, the first pieces of legislation that that legislative body passed were voter restriction laws. One very specifically was that you could not register if you lived in a temporary address. Now, that sounds innocuous enough until you realize that they were talking about kids in college dorms. And that was because young Latinos and young people did the assignment of 2018 and 2020 in Texas. They registered and they voted in record number. The reason they're purging Latino voters right now in Texas is because you have close to 800,000 Latino youth that have turned 18 since the last election.
Mila Atmos: [00:13:19] Wow.
Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:13:20] You have roughly 5 million registered Texans right now that have not cast a ballot. That's opportunity. Because if they're afraid of us, that means what we need to do is look in the mirror and see our power, know our worth, and fight like hell at the voting booth.
Mila Atmos: [00:13:38] Right, right. Well, you're talking about young people and registering voters. And of course, you are doing this every day. This is your bread and butter work. So tell us a little bit about your campaigns and programming, because I know you are really at the center of political, cultural, and digital trends, you know, to get the Latinx voter organized and activated. So what does a Voto Latino campaign look like? What's the messaging that compels your community to turn out to vote?
Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:14:11] No, I love this question because when we started, everybody kept telling us that Latinos were too young, that they would not care, that they didn't speak English, and what was social media? And why would social media
play into any electoral politics, ever? So fast forward to 20 years and it's all about who gets to you first. How do you use social media for good, and how do you inform a public so they are able to be informed when they cast a ballot? And so in the last several years, Voto Latino has gone from being on Myspace to being in all the spaces. Right now as of January 1st, to give you an example and to your listeners, we have literally had 111 million social media impressions and have reached over 13 million folks every single month starting in August, because we do everything organically for the first part of it, and then we'll do paid media campaign. But we deeply believe that the way you inform someone who feels that the government is not for them is by telling them what happens when they vote. Under the Biden administration, we were able to demonstrate that not only did they get billions of dollars of loan forgiveness, but because diabetes, sadly, is such an epidemic in the Latino community, the cost of insulin when it, going from $2000 to $35 was material difference. So we can talk about the big, great things that government does, but oftentimes it's the bread and butter issues. Those folks that are trying to balance their budget when they see that they voted and someone listened. That's what makes the difference. The people that we register are folks oftentimes where 65% to 70% don't have a college education. They have the most to lose when they are not voting, because government is in every single nook and cranny of their everyday life. And if they are not holding them accountable for their school boards, if they're not holding them accountable to pick up the trash, if they're not holding them accountable not to be racist, nefarious actors will make sure that they're acting in their own self-interest and not that of the community and of everyday citizens. And so just in mid-September, we launched the campaign called "Vota Con Ganas" -- vote with all you got. And it is basically the whole spectrum of the Latino community we're talking to. Yes, your influencers and your celebrities, but also college campuses right now. Voto Latino has over 190 college campuses that we are actively working with where young people are taking our idea and exploding it into what they believe is a reflection of their values and what they care about. We're conducting pop ups all over the university campuses. We are also very excited because we are talking to the lowriders, to the mariachis. The idea is like, the more we can make this accessible and provide people with clear information and say, "look, government is actually for you," we see that we change people's minds. We're aiming to register 500,000 folks this election in the key battleground states. If 2020 was any indication, 80% of those people that we register will vote. They will make the difference. We will also persuade and target low propensity voters that are roughly 3.5 million Latino voters in key battleground states. Oftentimes,
what most campaigns don't do, they only want to talk to the people who vote all the time. But because the majority of Latino voters are under the age of 33, they maybe only voted once. We need to talk to them so that they can actually be, again, voting for their interests.
Mila Atmos: [00:17:44] We'll continue with Maria Teresa Kumar in a moment. So stay with us. And when we come back, we'll talk about housing, immigration and this episode's civic spark. One small step we can all take to be more empowered and ignite collective change.
But first, if you liked this podcast, why not listen to "What's Wrong With Democracy"? A new weekly podcast from Tortoise Media in partnership with Open Society Foundations. Join political scientist Ben Ansell and guests from the world of politics as they explore the issues affecting democracies, both near and far, and whether our fractured body politic can be put back together. To listen, search for What's Wrong with Democracy wherever you're listening, and follow the feed to make sure you don't miss an episode.
And now let's return to my conversation with Maria Teresa Kumar.
Mila Atmos: [00:18:43] Well, let's talk about their interests. What are the issues that the Latinx community cares about the most, and what are the policies that could address them?
Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:18:52] It was one of those really telling moments, how this generation of Gen Zers are having such a different experience than Gen X and even the millennial generation. And I say this because back in April, we did a focus group of five battleground states that was intergenerational, and the number one issue for 18 to 29 year olds was housing and housing affordability. And I will tell you that I took it for granted by how they defined it. I thought, listening to them, that it was because they wanted to move out of their parents' house, that they wanted to live alone, were tired of roommates, that they actually wanted to save up money to eventually buy their first home. Instead, what was revealed in those focus groups, for example, was a young 22- year old man who was a baggage carrier at Phoenix Airport. A good job, an appropriate job, right? It was a good income, and he was sharing that he was struggling with his rent because he had to figure out if he could afford one meal or two meals a day. He's 22.
The survey that we did shortly after over 2000 voters between 18 to 29 year olds, 35% of them had gone on government assistance within the year, and 22% of them had gone on and added another job, a second job. So they can't afford rent. They can barely afford meals. They have to make sure that they take on another job. This is not a generation of slackers. Yet their profile fits that more of a single mother in her late 20s or early 30s than it does of an 18 year old. And so when Kamala Harris's campaign came out almost right after the convention and said that she was looking to do affordable housing as one of her signature pieces of legislation, she wasn't talking about all Americans. She was talking specifically about young people and meeting them where they are and speaking to them in a language that that was authentic, that didn't have judgment, but recognized what they needed in order to thrive in this country.
Mila Atmos: [00:21:04] So, of course, when we think about the vice president running for president and proposing this housing policy, we do also know that a lot of housing policy really happens at the state and local level. So how do you communicate around that with this demographic?
Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:21:21] So it's interesting. We've had a long-standing relationship with with the vice president's office. And so the fact first that she heard and the issue resonated was a big deal. The way we have found oftentimes when it comes to the issues of housing, is that the federal government can signal what priorities should be, and that oftentimes also signals budgetary promises that will help cities in this case, make sure that they can address housing problems. Now, I'm the first to recognize that it is complex, but we should not be afraid of doing hard things. Because one thing I do know is that when this country puts their mind to it, we're absolutely unstoppable. Oftentimes, I use the the example of somewhere in the 1960s, a man got out of bed and said, let's go land on the moon. And we did it with less technology than the iPhone in our pockets, than the Android in our pockets, less technology. And so when people say we can't do X or Y, that's because that's a choice.
Mila Atmos: [00:22:28] Yeah. Well said. That's very you know, sometimes I think I have to rethink my entire life when I hear these kinds of nuggets of wisdom. So thank you. So you mentioned that you work in battleground states, and you mentioned, of course, the kind of power that Latino voters have to decide elections. And you mentioned housing
affordability, medication affordability already. What are you hearing in battleground states this year that may be different than in other years?
Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:22:58] The issue of abortion. You started the segment talking about Latinos being on the conservative side. I would say that they are on the conservative side when it comes more to business than when it comes to social issues. And I say this because the majority, if I were to do, if your listeners actually had a plot graph and they can see us and I were to do a plot graph, the majority of white Americans, the most common age among white Americans, is 58 years old.
Mila Atmos: [00:23:27] Wow.
Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:23:28] The most common age. Among African Americans is31. How old do you think the most common age among Latinos are? Mila Atmos: [00:23:38] I'm going to guess it's in the 20s.
Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:23:40] 11 years old.
Mila Atmos: [00:23:42] 11. Oh, wow. I missed by a lot. [laughter]Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:23:48] So this is all data that comes out of Pew. And and when you realize that, you kind of realize, why are we having this backlash in this moment? But you also realize that when the issue of abortion comes up, those 11 year olds oftentimes will have... I'm excepted because I had my children late in life. Those 11 year olds will have, most of their mommies are going to be in their late 20s, maybe early 30s, and they want to be able to make decisions for themselves. And so that is why when you go into these battleground states and sometimes you kind of scratch your heads and you're like, why are white women evenly divided on abortion? Well, it's because the majority of them have already passed their reproductive ages and they care about different economic issues. But when you speak to African American women and Latinos and in this case, even Asian women, they're in their prime reproductive cycles right now, making really hard choices and having access to abortion at the end of the day is an economic issue. And so I often like to joke that when people say, "oh, but Latinos are Catholic." I'm like, "yes, we are, but we are Pope Francis Catholics. We
believe in climate change. We believe that we should be kind to our neighbors. We believe that if you do have an abortion, there is no judgment about us. And yes, we all have a gay cousin that we also love and accept." Right? So this is different. We are not the Benedict Catholics. We are very much the social Catholics. Now, if you were to say, well, there's a segment of Latinos that are ultra conservative. Absolutely, as there are in all populations, but the majority are social Catholics. Social, Pope Francis Catholics.
Mila Atmos: [00:25:26] Right, right. Well, it's a good reminder here, looking back at the debate between Vice President Harris and President Trump, because she centered at that time the fact that a really common abortion is as a result of a miscarriage. And a lot of people just don't think about it in this way. It's really, it's really basic health care. The other thing that is always worth mentioning is that 60% of women who have abortions are already mothers. So the idea that it's primarily, you know, "bad teenagers," it's just false. And yeah, like you said, it's an economic issue. You know, some mothers already have too many children and they just can't afford another one. So let's talk about immigration, because of course, immigration laws and the border are a big part of this election cycle and touches all the immigrant communities. Of course, in recent weeks, the Haitians have been in the spotlight in a really bad way. So we also know that the United States has had a problematic record in Latin America sowing chaos for decades. So in a way, the problems are coming home to roost because many of these places have become so dangerous to live in. How does the Latinx community think about immigration and the border, especially vis a vis the election?
Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:26:49] I welcome this question. And, you know, one of the biggest stories that of what's happening, for example, in the Haitian community, that surprised me because it was it was in The New York Times. And it was, I think the lede was buried. It turns out that when all those schools were being evacuated for bomb threats, if you recall, many of those calls were coming from overseas with the intention of creating chaos from what is happening right now of overseas. So Voto Latino, we do a lot of work on disinformation, and we find that if, for your listeners, I would encourage you to read, it's the most succinct piece of disinformation information, article coverage that I have read on what we should be expecting and how we should be very clear eyed that what is happening is not always from the extreme right. It is a piece by Anne Applebaum of The Atlantic. It's called "Russia and China Propaganda," specifically aimed at disrupting elections. And towards the end of the article, it speaks to election
disruptions that we have witnessed at Voto Latino in these different patterns. So it really resonates. So when we talk about what is happening, even in Latin America, one of the biggest purveyors of information in Latin America is Russia Today. They are the biggest perpetrators of disinformation that because we have here in the United States, such close ties gets lobbed over the border, back and forth endlessly, and there's very little commitment from the platforms to stop it. We can go on a tangent on what we witnessed from when it came to Covid vaccination, where my mother was hesitant to take a Covid vaccine because of disinformation she received from someone from El Salvador that was sent to someone in her gym, that was sent to her. My mother has no roots in El Salvador and and, neither the woman that sent it over. But I say this because a lot of the stuff that we're facing in Latin America and the border crisis was because many people were receiving disinformation, saying that the border was open and that helped perpetuate a crisis. If we were to unpack where the Latino community is on immigration itself, I can share with you that we for a long time, Democrats and Republicans, have co-mingled two separate issues. When the Gang of 5 in 2013 tried to pass comprehensive immigration reform, they commingled a domestic policy issue of addressing the people living in the shadows that take care of our children, pick our food, take care of our elderly, are our teachers, and instead of seeking protection for these individuals that lived here for ten, 20, 30 years, who've been paying billions of dollars in taxes, who are keeping our families and our communities afloat. They decided to add the international element of what's happening in Latin America and making it one issue. What we should talk about is what do we do to make sure that those 16 million Americans that have an undocumented loved one in their households are safe from Gestapo-like tactics that Project 2025 is trying to create? How do we harness their power and recognize that they have earned it as good citizens. That the reason that the economy in America right now is booming is because of the essential workers who were essential to us, but who did not have a choice. I have to tell you that I hate the term essential worker because essential for who? We like to say that we're a meritocracy, that we're equal, but nothing shed the light of our social stratification than depending on a whole labor force that not only didn't have a choice, but oftentimes the same president would have deported them. So we'll stop there on that end. But I think that...
Mila Atmos: [00:30:52] Yeah. Let's talk about that president, because, you know, how does the Latinx community think about him, given his past record on family separations,
on deportations, is it top of mind for the Latinx community as we inch closer to the election?
Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:31:07] It was something that was something that was for us, really interesting. When Kamala Harris came to the top of the ticket, we had done a survey of over 2000 Latino voters again in our key battleground states, and we had found that had the election been done back in April, it would have been super close because 47% of the Latino community was for Biden, 38% of the community was for Trump, and 12% of them were for RFK, leading into the convention. Fast forward when they changed the top of the ticket, our survey of the same folks found that 60% would vote for Kamala Harris, 29% would vote for Trump, and 7% would vote for RFK. We expected the independent voter to go into the Democratic bucket. What we did not expect was for the Trump voter to go into the Democratic bucket. And I think there was two factors. One is that they found her authentic. They understood that she had an immigrant experience, and so they didn't have to explain their experience to her and that she seemed to have sound policies. That's one. But I also think, and now this is projecting, this is not, this has not been quantified or qualified in any way, but just my analysis. I also think that the two weeks prior of a convention hall covered with mass deportation signs that the media took lightly, but that we internalized. We got the message.
Mila Atmos: [00:32:40] Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point. I know people, so I am, of course, myself -- not necessarily, of course, but -- I am myself an immigrant. I came here by myself to this country without my parents. And so it's the kind of thing when I see things like this, I definitely feel very charged and and I really feel like it's a dangerous situation in a way that I think is not appreciated for people who are born here, raised here. No matter what their color is, frankly. But, you know, if you've done these interviews and you've stood in line, it's very personal. And it's, you know, this process is arduous and it feels always like somebody is gonna pull a fast one on you, even though you have ticked all the boxes and done all your work and met all the requirements. It feels always very precarious. So you just mentioned the polling. That's great. And I have a question about how you expect the Harris administration to handle immigration laws and border security. And of course, we know that immigration laws are well beyond border security. It's much more comprehensive. But, you know, notably, in June of 2021, she gave a speech discouraging people from trying to cross at the US-
Mexico border. And she said very clearly, "do not come." And on the campaign trail, she boasts about prosecuting transnational gangs. So it feels to me that she's going to be quite tough. But maybe that's a misconception that she's just trying to win an election to, you know, I mean, and I understand that also that calculus. But tell us about how you expect her to be a leader in this space.
Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:34:22] Yeah, that's that's a hard question because you could never forecast, but you could advise and counsel. And one of the things I would encourage is having a frank conversation with the American people of why people are coming. Everybody recognized Biden's incredible ability to have the American people left, right, and center on board with him when he went out on his policy to support Ukraine. But it's because he over communicated what having an unstable democracy would mean for the region and for U.S. leadership and our national interest. There has yet been a leader to communicate why we need a stable South America and Latin America, and as a result, people fear what they don't know, and they don't recognize that instability in Latin America opens the floodgates for people to come to America. And so I would encourage a frank conversation with the American people that is also followed with a real investment plan in Latin America, because, you know, who takes national security of Latin America, that region, super seriously? China and Russia. Because we have stopped investing in Latin America, the majority of infrastructure right now and the ports have been done by loans from China. Good for them. But they're also not aligned with our national interests. Bad for us. And so as we look at what we expect from her at the border, by the time someone reaches the border, that's not an immigration policy. That's not international policy. That is a broken failed system. And nothing that you could do there will actually fix the root problems.
Mila Atmos: [00:36:07] For sure. I feel like there are so many blind spots with U.S. foreign policy and the intersection of that foreign policy with, actually, matters of national security, because having this border crisis is really unsafe for all Americans. You know, like it's not necessary.
Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:36:24] I'll tell you. Like I would actually say that, right? Like, it's actually not necessary because it's almost as you know, I have Sol Trujillo, who's a mentor of mine. He's like, you know, it's almost like a supply chain issue, like one: we're not leveling with the American people that we need to invest in our southern border
region partners, but we're also not living with the American people, that the reason we're exceptional as a country is because we bring in the best and the brightest, the grittiest of people, the entrepreneurs. And I can say that the entrepreneur that is at MIT right now, figuring out the next innovation is as equal and as entrepreneurial as the person that swam the Rio Grande, because they both believed in themselves. And they both believed that the best version of themselves was only made here in America. And that should excite us because we want people with grit. We want to make people with intention, and we want people with entrepreneurship. And I will tell you that the reason we have massive disinformation trying to tear us apart, why people are calling in to high schools, trying to pit Americans against each other, is because our foreign adversaries understand that our multiculturalism is our human capital, and that is our leadership, and that is what differentiates us from the rest of the world. So we have to get our act together and recognize that it's our multiculturalism that is our superpower. Our racism and our bias is our Achilles heel. And if we don't heal those wounds, foreign actors will intervene and they will exploit it to their benefit.
Mila Atmos: [00:37:46] Right. Well said. So you mentioned that Voto Latino was founded 20 years ago and you have clearly built built a lot.
Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:37:55] As you keep reminding me [laughter].
Mila Atmos: [00:37:56] Let me say it differently now that you've been in this space for20 years.
Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:37:59] Or that we're 20 years young, I don't know why. I think it's because we talk to young people every day. So it's like.
Mila Atmos: [00:38:05] But I'm really trying to get at is like, how has the electorate changed? How has the Latinx community as a voter changed from 20 years ago?
Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:38:12] Well, one is we're bigger. So when we started Voto Latino, there were 29,000 Latinos turning 18 every single month. Now there is 4 million every four years. So a little over a million are turn 18 every single month. The tsunami of Latino eligibility started in 2018, and we won't peak until closer to 2032. And so the volume of Latino voters has shifted because as you get older, people become obviously
more conservative. But the majority of Latinos are young and they espouse the views and values of their peers. So I don't need to convince a young person that climate change is real. I just need to convince them that if they vote for a policy maker to vote their values, that the system can change and address the issue that they care about.
Mila Atmos: [00:39:05] Mm. Okay. So every week on Future Hindsight, I ask my guest to share a civic spark, one small step we can all take to be more empowered and ignite collective change. What's a good way to turn the insights you've shared with us today into action?
Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:39:22] So I will be completely self-serving and encourage people to go to VotoLatino.Org and to volunteer. I think that we need to hear from all our friends and our peers, and if you volunteer, we can give you all the social media toolkits that you want. And I would also encourage you if you're saying, well, I've done all the volunteering. At Voto Latino, it takes us $24 to register a voter. So pitch in. Because at the end of the day, Black, Latino, Asian, white, native, Indigenous, Bipoc communities, the strength of our democracy is our vote. Our vote is our nurture to our democracy. It's what we show, how we love. And quite frankly, we got here because we hadn't been loving it for a very long time. But something happened in 2016 that mobilized us in 2018 to vote in record numbers, that our system that our country had not seen in 100 years. And we realized that we hadn't finished. So we came together in a multicultural way and did it again, outvoting than we had in 2020. And what we did was a body of legislation of 400 pieces of legislation. That was our blueprint for the 21st century. And when people say diversity doesn't matter, it was the body of the US House of Representatives in 2018 that was the most diverse in our country's 240 year history: the most Muslim, the most Latino, the most women, the most veterans, the youngest class in close to 50 years. And we came up with a social contract that had equal pay, codified abortion, that made sure that we were sensible on guns. And I can go on the list. And so when we had all these diverse pieces of ideas of how we could improve America, we have a beautiful body of work. But the only way it happens is if we send a beautiful body of people into that to understand that we are here collectively. And that gives me great hope. But it's also the task of making sure that we close voter registration gaps among young people. Young people for the first time will be larger than baby boomers. Since 2016, close to 28 million youth have become of age, and none of them are registered.
Tell them to get registered that the water is warm and that we could do great change together.
Mila Atmos: [00:41:43] Thank you for connecting the action with the outcome. It's very important. I think people lose that. They think and then what? You know. So as we are rounding out our conversation here today, looking into the future, what makes you hopeful?
Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:41:58] What makes me hopeful is the American people; that when we put our minds to it, we are unstoppable and that we shouldn't be timid to think big and bold. Because if we were to take a lesson from the Greatest Generation after World War II, what they did was double down on a middle class. They doubled down on building roads and economy and thriving and making sure that we had access to education. And they did it with less information. They did it with less money, with less resources. So we have to look collectively in the mirror and say, what would we like to build for our families, for our community? And how can we lead to make a most just world? And I deeply believe that we have the capability, and sometimes, for whatever reason, we have forgotten that our capacity is limitless and we are so blessed. And we should do it for good. Because at this moment there are other folks that are seeking light. And if we stop pointing at each other and actually be very clear on our possibility, I think that the American agenda for the next century will be beautiful. And I say that because I'm the first to say that our past is imperfect, but that should not stop us from addressing our perfect possibility.
Mila Atmos: [00:43:25] Oh, that's really hopeful. Thank you very much. From your lips to God's ears, as they say. Thank you very much, Maria Teresa, for joining us on Future Hindsight. It was really a pleasure to have you on the show.
Maria Teresa Kumar: [00:43:37] Thank you for your questions and thank you for sharing your experience. I understood.
Mila Atmos: [00:43:42] Thank you. Maria Teresa Kumar is the president and CEO of Voto Latino, a civic engagement organization focused on educating and empowering a new generation of Latinx voters.
Remember, civic action doesn't have to be complicated. It's about small steps that spark progress. Like sharing this episode with a friend! Let's recap this week's civic spark and fire up our collective power. Show up to vote collectively and get excited to do it and share this excitement with young people and those who are not yet registered to vote. As Maria Teresa said, come on in, the water's warm.
Next week on Future Hindsight, we're joined by Sharon McMahon. She's the creator of Sharon Says So, host of the Here's Where It Gets Interesting podcast, and the author of The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement.
Sharon McMahon: [00:44:44] Positive things don't come from a place of hopelessness, and I think one of the important things to realize is that so many of us think that hope is a feeling that we will one day encounter, much like somebody will make me laugh someday. When in reality, hope is a choice. It's choice that we can make despite evidence to the contrary.
Mila Atmos: [00:45:10] That's next time on Future Hindsight.
Oh, you're still here. I guess you just can't get enough of future hindsight. In that case, you should sign up for the newsletter. Just go to Future hindsight.com to sign up for free. Then every week we'll come to you.
Thanks for tuning in! And until next time, see clearly, act boldly and spark the change you want to see.
This episode was produced by Zack Travis and me.
The Democracy Group: [00:45:48] This podcast is part of the Democracy Group.