Latinas figured prominently in the 2018, 2020, and 2022 general elections as major party candidates for political office, as political organizers, and as a key portion of the electorate in states with competitive races for Congress and governor’s offices. All three election cycles altered the political landscape, with significant increases in the volume and diversity of women of color running for national office as well as increasing the number who successfully won election to Congress (CAWP 2022; Dittmar 2018, 2020a). A record number of Latinas ran for national office as major party candidates and won in each of these cycles. Specifically, 51 Latinas entered national races as candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate in 2018 and 12 won; 75 ran in 2020 and 13 won; and 88 ran in both regular and special elections in 2022 and 20 won. At the beginning of the 118th congressional session in January 2023, 19 Latinas were serving in national office as voting members of Congress.[1] This included 18 Latinas in the U.S. House of Representatives (13 D, 5 R) and 1 U.S. senator. Put another way, in just five years – between 2017 and 2023 – the number of Latina candidates for Congress grew by more than 50% and the number of Latinas elected to Congress as voting members doubled from 10 to 20. (Acevedo 2020; Dittmar 2020b, 2022; Krogstad, Flores, Lopez 2018; Sampaio 2018a).
For Latinas, California and Texas serve as the epicenter of these political changes, with more than half of all Latina candidates running for national office emerging from these two states. However, California and Texas represent two vastly different political landscapes with Latina Democratic candidates and representatives outnumbering Republicans in California while a growing bloc of Latina Republican candidates have outpaced Democrats seeking election to national office from Texas.
Despite the gains made in the most recent elections and the increasing public profile of individual Latinas serving in office, the numbers of Latinas in the House and Senate consistently falls far below parity. In 2022 Latinas constituted over 9% of the total U.S. population, over 18% of all women in the U.S., and half of the largest racial/ethnic minority community in the U.S.; however, they represented just 2.8% of the entire congressional body. Among this group of women is U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto from Nevada — the only Latina ever elected to the U.S. Senate. With 19 Latinas currently serving in Congress (14 Democrats and 5 Republicans), Latinas are vastly underrepresented within national politics. This is particularly important because Congress retains plenary power over issues such as immigration (and the vast array of topics subsumed under that theme including admissions, citizenship, detention, deportation, enforcement, workforce authorization and access to important public services). Excluding Latinas from national office not impacts the ability of Latina/o/x communities to be democratically represented, it erases their voice on key issues that disproportionately impact the population.
A goal of this research is to help close the representation gap in Congress by examining the historic elections of 2018, 2020, and 2022 and evaluating both the emergence and experiences of Latina congressional candidates. Drawing on empirical data as well as interviews with over two dozen Latina congressional candidates and political professionals in both California and Texas during the 2018, 2020, and 2022 election cycles, this research examines patterns in Latina candidate emergence, paying particular attention to the political development of Latina candidates, partisan differences, as well as significant variations in access and support across states and districts. The research also examines alternative strategies and channels of support that emerged among Latina candidates and between women running in 2018, 2020, and 2022. Interview data was supplemented with information from public databases including Ballotpedia, the U.S. Census, Vote Smart, Open Secrets, as well as candidate profiles compiled by the Center for American Women in Politics (CAWP) and candidate web sites.
Ultimately, the research draws lessons from Latina congressional candidates and officeholders in 2018, 2020, and 2022 that will help address the representation gap and increase opportunities for Latina candidates seeking national office across the country. The research is presented here in two parts: Part I highlights Latina candidate emergence in 2018, 2020, and 2022, drawing from trends in data collected during these election cycles as well as qualitative interviews with congressional members and candidates; Part II explores candidate experiences across key themes drawing more thoroughly on interview data. These interviews were conducted both in person and over Zoom from July 2020 through September 2022 with Latina congressional members, candidates and political professionals from both California and Texas. In total, 20 interviews were collected with Latina congressional members or candidates, including fifteen Democrats and five Republicans. Four of the interviews were conducted with congresswomen currently serving in office. An additional four interviews were conducted with political professionals involved in part of an individual candidate’s campaign. All quotes provided in this report are drawn from those original interviews and all interview subjects consented to being interviewed and quoted in accordance with university research protocol governing the collection of data for the project.
[1] Republican Mayra Flores was elected to Congress from Texas during a special election in June 2022; however, she lost her re-election bid during regularly scheduled elections in November 2022. Thus, while there were 20 Latinas elected to Congress throughout the 2022 elections cycles, there were 19 voting members in office at the outset of the 118th Congressional session in 2023.