From Immigration Policy Center
October 23, 2008
Washington D.C.— Late on Election Day, pundits will begin to identify the demographic groups who are responsible for swinging the results in key races around the nation. Today, a groundbreaking report released by the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) entitled The New American Electorate: The Growing Political Power of Immigrants and Their Children examines the growing electoral clout of a previously unidentified yet pivotal group of voters in key states around the nation—naturalized immigrants and the U.S.-born children of immigrants raised during the current era of immigration that began in 1965.
“New American voters are now the fastest growing demographic group in the American electorate,” said Rob Paral, author of the report. “This group of New American voters is critical to highlight as their growth has been utterly unprecedented.”
The report prepared by Paral and Associates for the Immigration Policy Center finds:
* New Americans Were Nearly 9% of All Registered Voters in 2006
* New Americans Registered Voters Jumped Nearly 60% between 1996 and 2004
* New Americans Share of Registered Voters Exceeded the 2004 Victory Margins in 16 States Including Battlegrounds: Nevada, Florida, New Mexico and Pennsylvania.
2008 is expected to be a banner year for New American voters due to record-breaking naturalization rates of up to three million new citizens; turbo-charged registration efforts by groups like the We Are America Alliance and “Ya es Hora, Ve y Vota;” and aggressive GOTV efforts in ethnic communities which will likely result in Latino turnout hitting record highs in 2008—surpassing the 7.6 million Latino voters who turned out in 2004.
“This report could not be more well-timed,” said Angela Kelley, Director of the Immigration Policy Center. “The campaigns, pundits and press have spent this entire election cycle searching for a new and weighty voting bloc. Their search is over. Step aside Soccer Moms and NASCAR Dads. New Americans are ready to vote. This group has been decades in the making and they are certain to flex their voting muscles this year”
Click here to view the report and fact sheet in their entirety.
The Hunger Site
October 23, 2008 at 10:43 pm
This is not the most rational response in the world, but let’s face it; some of this stuff gets personal. Some candidates, like Barack Obama, have pushed me over the line politically, to where I couldn’t vote for them if I tried to force myself.
Others like Sandoval, and Tom Ammiano, have wasted so much of my time just dodging, not even having the guts to say NO, ’cause they don’t wanta say anything that might offend one side or the other, that I couldn’t vote for them if I tried to force myself either, ’cause i value my time. And that’s coming from a former Ammiano sentimentalist, who once walked precincts and contributed to Ammiano’s mayoral campaign, and who once thought Sandoval was at least sorta kinda OK too. They can both burn in hell.