Growing Hispanic vote anticipated in low-turnout 89th District

SPRINGDALE -- Fewer people voted for either candidate in the District 89 state House race than voted for the man who lost in a nearby House race in Fayetteville.

Democrats hoped to bring large numbers of Spanish-speaking voters to the polls this year in Northwest Arkansas. No candidate counted on that more than Irvin Camacho, the nominee for District 89. He ran against former Washington County Assessor Jeff Williams, an established candidate and Republican campaigner.

Only 5,007 voters showed up for the contest -- barely more than the 4,915 who gave incumbent Rep. Rebecca Petty a second term against her opponent in the District 94 race in Rogers. Williams won the District 89 race 2,813 to 2,194.

"That turnout's actually quite a dramatic increase from the 4,400 who showed up in 2012, the last time there was a competitive race in this district," Williams said. "It's always been a low-turnout district, in large part because there are a lot of immigrants. So it has large numbers of people who can't vote yet. More people are becoming eligible every year, though."

Camacho agreed, noting the same turnout figures. He also said a Hispanic Democrat who ran for the same position in 2012 received 1,550 votes.

"I thought it was going to be close or that we'd win, but an increase from 1,500 to more than 2,100 is a lot of progress," Camacho said. "I was running against a two-term Springdale alderman who was then elected as county assessor, also."

The District 89 position was an open seat this year, left by departing state Rep. Micah Neal, R-Springdale, who decided against seeking re-election. An estimated 47 percent of District 89's residents are Hispanic, according to both candidates.

The election showed there is far more work for organizers to do, Camacho said.

"There was an impression that if you voted for a Democrat or a Republican in the presidential race, you also automatically voted for all that party's candidates," he said. "When we had more than 10 people ask us about that, we realized this problem could be more serious than we thought.

"We have to do more than to just get people registered," Camacho said. "The poll workers did all they could, but there's only so much they can do once the election's started."

For example, poll workers are not allowed to be in the booth while a voter is filling out his ballot, where they could catch a mistake in progress.

The Hispanic vote is a growing force, said the candidates and Mireya Reith, executive director of the nonprofit Arkansas United Community Coalition, which supports voter registration of immigrants. The increase is showing, they said, but won't show all at once.

"We're going to start to see exponential growth, no question about it," Williams said.

Not only are immigrants becoming citizens, but their children who are citizens turn 18 and become eligible to vote, Williams said. Reith cited the same trends.

It will probably be early next year before her group gets a full analysis of voter returns, Reith said.

"We had unprecedented early voting turnout," she said. "We had a lot of requests in Washington County, particularly for Spanish-language support and volunteers.

"Many of them were voting for the first time, and we could tell from their questions that they weren't just interested in the president's race. They wanted to vote for their local candidates. We perceived this as the highest immigrant turnout that we've had for an election and that it's finally awakening as a community."

Reith's group and other affiliated groups registered more than 2,500 people to vote this year, according to coalition figures.

As for teenagers, an estimated 4,000 Hispanics in Arkansas turned 18 last year, Reith said. In two years, she expects 10,000 a year turning 18 and to have 20,000 a year by 2020.

"There's no question that candidates already need to be addressing this," Williams said. "We had Spanish speakers knocking door-to-door in our campaign. They carried our message, which was basic conservative ideology, such as the right to life. We were delighted with the results."

One factor that makes the growth of the Hispanic vote less noticeable is that it has not fallen clearly and wholly on one side or for one party, Williams said.

"I think that with any group of people, you are going to find that the people in it don't all fit any certain mold," he said.

Metro on 11/14/2016

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