Texas Tribune Festival VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: The Power of the Latino Vote
Mike Madrid joins Former HUD Secretary Julian Castro, Maria Teresa Kumar, Luis Miranda Jr. to discuss the Latino Vote
WOW! Explosive growth in every one of the battleground states has everyone pointing to the Latino vote as being decisive in the coming Presidential election. This panel was one of the most dynamic and talked about on the third day of the festival and started a discussion on changing conceptions of race, minority voters, and where support levels of Latinos are really at for Harris and Trump as we reach the final stretch of the race.
Mike Madrid, Maria Teresa Kumar, executive director of VotoLatino and Luis Miranda Jr. (father of Lin-Manuel Miranda of ‘Hamilton’ fame) and director of The Hispanic Federation both offered insights into what was driving the Latino voter in 2024.
Here’s some quick clips of the highlights:
Luis Miranda Jr. emphasizes that the Black and white racial model for discussing politics in this country doesn’t work for Latinos
Mike Madrid responds to a question of how to answer young voters who say they wont vote for a candidate that doesnt agree with them on everything
This was truly one of the better discussions on Latino voters that I’ve been on in a long time. Julian Castro brought thoughtful questions and the respondents did their best to leave their partisan talking points at home…for the most part anyway. Here’s the full panel. It’s worth the watch.
Mike, your interview with Politico is fascinating.
It crystallized your thesis for me, and illustrated the prism of Harris' messaging and economic policies.
This panel discussion at the Texas Tribune Festival was well worth the listen. Two moments that stood out for me were Mike Madrid's eloquent explanation of the concept and meaning of democracy -- "...I don't get what I want all of the time..." and "...compromise is the glue that binds us...". Also, Maria Kumar's fascinating and encouraging work with the Texas Latino community, and her point about how the TikTok disinformation network targeting Latinos was caught flat-footed by Biden dropping out. If I am correct in my interpretation, it seems the latter gave Harris a window of opportunity to break through with her messaging and define herself before TikTok disinformation could switch gears.