Reeling from losses among Latinos, New York Dems strategize what’s next

SAN JUAN — Every year, New York Democrats descend on Puerto Rico for a lively post-election conference that's a bit politicking and a fair amount of partying.

At times this week it has felt like a funeral.

New York Democrats — who represent a blend of every once-reliable voting bloc for a party in decline — are reeling from Republicans' decisive wins across the country this week. During a junket where the mood is often celebratory and the focus local, the vibe at this year's conference has been more subdued as Democrats begin debating how to recover nationally and reverse President-elect Donald Trump's tremendous gains in their blue state. The event, known as Somos, was originally called Somos el Futuro — we are the future — in acknowledgment of Latin-Americans' growing political power.

This week, one particular focus is Democrats' loss of support among Latinos, who make up about 12 percent of the state's voting population. In the final weeks of the campaign, New York-based consultant Camille Rivera went into overdrive trying to motivate Puerto Ricans to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris after offensive comments at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally.

But it wasn't enough to stop Trump's growing support among Latino men. Exit polls show he won 54 percent of the vote from that particular demographic.

"Many of the Latinos are more conservative when it comes to the social justice talk — we have to acknowledge that," said Henry Garrido, who runs New York City's largest public-sector union and hails from the Dominican Republic. "For us, it's the economy. Not at the macro level, but, 'Am I feeling the pinch in my own work? Do I have to work overtime?"

Garrido was addressing a crowd of hundreds, made up of state lawmakers, lobbyists and activists attending a talk dubbed "Navigating Change together – The Latino Vote 2024" from a windowless ballroom at the Caribe Hilton. Outside, a gray sky hung over the tropical island.

The predominantly Black and Hispanic membership of Garrido's union, District Council 37, once made up the backbone of the Democratic Party. But even in blue New York, Latino support is shifting toward the GOP .

A consensus is emerging that national Democrats focused too little on pocketbook concerns and failed to understand the relatively conservative posture many Latinos share around social issues, public safety and a migrant crisis that has disproportionately impacted New York. It's a critique being leveled by one of America's leading critics of income inequality — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders , who lambasted Democrats for having "abandoned working class people" after Trump's victory.

Shifting to a narrowly focused fiscal message would call upon left-flank Democrats to limit their overwhelming emphasis on identity politics and social issues – a focus Republicans have successfully seized on with expensive ads and some misinformation.

"For some Latinos, they care about equity, they care about fairness, but sometimes abortion is not a priority for them. Gender rights are not a priority," state lawmaker Karines Reyes said. "Not that it's not important, it's just not a priority. They were voting on their priority. Those priorities were clearly the pocketbook issues."

Faith among the country's Latinos — more than half of whom identify as Catholic or evangelical — could also explain why they are less persuaded by campaigns that focus on abortion, Reyes said. Having enjoyed electoral victories across the country after the Supreme Court overturned in 2022 — even in red states — Democrats placed outsized emphasis on reproductive issues this cycle. But the issue failed to thwart Trump, who appointed the justices who overturned the landmark case.

Immigration is not as powerful a motivator for Latinos — many of whom are immigrants themselves — as Democrats thought, data shows. An August survey from the Hispanic Federation, which works to help hundreds of Latino-centered nonprofits around the country, showed economic concerns ranked far above immigration for Latinos nationally.

"Not immigration, like everybody tried to pigeonhole us into, but pocketbook issues — the inflation, jobs, the economy, affordable housing — were the top issues for Latinos," said Frankie Miranda, the federation's president.

The Democratic government's response to immigration might actually be repelling Latino voters instead of luring them.

In New York City, an influx of more than 200,000 migrants since 2022 forced Mayor Eric Adams' administration to cobble together a network of social services to support the burgeoning population. But the funding required for that put the city into a serious budgetary crisis — causing it to reduce hours at libraries and cut other services to cover the costs — as Adams consistently pointed out .

"While they were struggling to find affordable housing in a city that has a residency requirement, migrants have hotels," Garrido said, expressing a concern he said he heard from union members in meeting after meeting. "While they were struggling to fight for economic justice, [migrants] were given debit cards. ... They were getting healthcare, when we're trying to fight for the very healthcare we have fought for in our collective bargaining agreements."

Luis Miranda, chair of the political advocacy organization Latino Victory, agreed, saying his immigrant neighbors in Manhattan would often lament, "'My brother waited five years before he could get his papers and these people arrive and in six months they're working.'"

"For many whites, it's just pure racism, but for a chunk of our community that perceived unfairness had an impact," Miranda added.

Not everyone was prepared to accept that Democrats made a massive messaging mistake.

"Pundits love drama and blame, and the first thing that they did was blame Latinos so that people of color could blame each other for what's really happening," said Camille Rivera, the self-identified "lefty" of the panel and founder of La Brega y Fuerza, which tries to politically engage Puerto Ricans on the mainland.

"As an Afro-Latina and as a person of color, it is so easy for many people to blame the other," Rivera said. "They want us to do that. Trump wants us to do that. Billionaires want us to do that. White institutions want us to do that."

Ana María Archila, co-executive director of the left-flank Working Families Party who was born in Colombia, bristled at the argument that Democrats' focus on LGBTQ+ issues cost them support among Latino voters, demanding that anybody pushing that narrative produce evidence. But she agreed that Democrats should have focused on the cost of living.

"This party is always asking working class people to wait for the most basic relief. On the cost of child care, on the cost of housing," she said in an interview with POLITICO. Whether people voted for Trump, or chose not to vote, "I would say people are making rational conclusions that the party they have been loyal to has not actually delivered."