Wisconsin Latinx Voters Could Have Final Say in Tight Senate Race

With just five days left before election days, new polls suggest that Latinx voters in Wisconsin could likely be the tipping point in the U.S. Senate.

The final Marquette Law School Poll of the 2016 campaign shows Democrat Russ Feingold with 45 percent support and incumbent Republican Sen. Ron Johnson at 44 percent, the narrowest margin between the candidates this cycle in a race that could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate in 2017.

In 2010, Johnson defeated Feingold by only 105,000 votes. The close margins in such critical race highlight the importance of mobilizing the more than 156,000 eligible Latinx voters estimated to be living in Wisconsin.

Since mid-August, dozens of Voces de la Frontera Action members have worked to mobilize the vote by knocking on over 50,000 doors of Latinx, African-American and working class white voters in Green Bay and Milwaukee. More than 2,000 Latinx voters in Milwaukee have already voted early in this year's elections. As a comparison, only 994 people in Milwaukee's majority-Latinx districts voted early in all of 2012.

"For the last year, Latinxs and immigrants have been attacked by the Republican party. Now, as the Senate race tightens up before election day, it's beginning to look like Latinxs and eligible immigrant voters in Wisconsin will have the final say and they take this responsibility very seriously" said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera Action. "Every day, we're working to make sure our community turns out to vote. We are sending a clear message to Republican candidates that racism and xenophobia are not a winning political strategy and that Democrats win when they embrace issues important to Latinx voters."

*Latinx is a gender-neutral term for a person or a group of people of Latin American origin.