As Congress works toward the final stages of an immigration reform plan, a new issue brief from the Center for American Progress explores how immigration and the growing Latino population could impact the future political landscape in key states.
Immigration issues among Latino voters were crucial in swinging the 2012 presidential election.
And
the rapid growth and voting power of the Latino population also ensured
key swing states such as Florida, Colorado and Nevada voted for the current Democratic president, according to the brief.
Key states such as
Arizona and North Carolina are also reaching demographic tipping points that could shift the states reliably blue, said Philip Wolgin,
senior policy analyst for immigration at the Center for American
Progress.
“These are states that are becoming swing states in a
way that I think nobody really envisioned would have happened in the
past,” he said.
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The financing of political campaigns is one area where the gap
between what voter’s want and what the law of the land is appears vast.
The Chicago Federation of Labor has made a major television ad buy with a 30-second message making an appeal to elected officials and constituents about the fiscal cliff. The ad notes that although the election may have been a victory for Democrats at the local and national levels, "the fight has just begun."