“Latinos don’t want to be invited to the kiddie table anymore”: The Latino Vote, Texas Tribune Fest 2026

30 million Latin people were eligible to vote in 2020 and from those 30 million, 16.5 million voted, said the National Museum of the American Latino. In this panel, they spoke on the tendencies and importance of the Latin representation.

“I think I heard this from Carlos Volio at another panel that Latinos don’t want to be invited to the kiddie table anymore, right? I don’t think Latino voters don’t want the party to come to the Latino party. They want to hear that the campaign is embracing Latino issues, which might not be that different from any other people’s issues. But those issues, your concerns, are part of my broader agenda and community.” said Sergio Garcia-Rios, assistant professor in the LBJ School of Public Policy.

In this year’s Texas Tribune Fest, they invited Stephanie Valencia, co-founder of Equis Research, an organization that is dedicated to investigate the voting tendencies of Latinos for a better understanding; Jason Villalba, president and CEO of Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation and Sergio García-Rios, assistant professor in the LBJ School of Public Affairs, to talk about the importance of the Latino vote and the changes that have happened over time.

In the ads that we frequently see, attempts to involve the Latin culture, so that people can relate to those candidates and their motivations.

“And people say ‘que cute’, like that is so sweet. He’s trying to reach us.” said Stephanie Valencia. “We’ve done a lot of research at Equis around what we call cultural cues. So an English language ad that never uses the word Latino or Latino community, but you see the tapestry that looks Latino or the pot of beans cooking on the stone.” she added.

While other government officials try to connect with the Latin culture, they have lately sensed a disconnection that reflects the growth of the Latino community; the community that not only seeks a sense of belonging, but a sense of understanding. Being so, we have seen that the 2024 election had 50% of Latinos vote in favor of Trump, but now we are seeing that the Latinos have transformed into swing voters, who change their opinion based on the candidate’s role and not their political party. Now we are seeing changes in voters turning to the Democratic Party, said Villalba.

“It’s not, you know, Vicente Fernandes coming out at the RNC. It’s not people coming out to eat tacos, it’s not Greg Abbott campaigning with Johnny Canales, which were outliers. Those weren’t outliers, and people were like ‘Oh wow, so this guy kind of gets us, right?’” he added.

But now the sensation is “No, we are part of this thing.” Villaba said.

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