For the fourth consecutive year, economic issues dominate the list of concerns for Latino voters in Colorado, who rank addressing inflation and the rising cost of living as their top policy priorities in the fourth annual Colorado Latino Policy Agenda released today. Low wages, high healthcare costs and the lack of affordable and attainable housing also rank among the top priorities for Latino voters in 2024, along with an increasing emphasis on reforming immigration policies impacting both new arrivals and long-term immigrants.
The Colorado Latino Policy Agenda (CLPA) is an annual, nonpartisan report that provides insight for elected officials, community leaders, media and others interested in the demographic makeup and views of Latinos in Colorado on pressing policy, political, and other relevant issues in the state.
Among the key findings this year:
Addressing inflation and the rising cost of living is the top priority for Latino voters at both the state and federal levels for the third consecutive year, as four of the top five priorities focused on economic concerns.
The economic situation of 65% of Latinos has either not improved (30%) or has become worse (35%) since 2023, nearly identical to a year ago.
Creating affordable and attainable housing rose three positions to the third-most- important issue for state officials to address in 2024, with a majority (55%) of Latino voters saying elected officials have not effectively addressed the issue in their community.
Roughly a third of Latinos (30%) prioritize federal immigration issues in the 2024 poll, with 17% saying “protecting immigrant rights/immigration reform” should be a top priority and 13% saying federal officials should “increase border security/limit immigration.”
Addressing gun violence and mass shootings is the only non-economic issue within the top five priority issues at the national level, ranking among the top five issues for Latino voters for the third consecutive year.
Homelessness returned as a critical priority for Latino voters in 2024, ranking fourth on the list of most important issues for state leaders to address.
There is significant support (77%) for access to reproductive healthcare for all, regardless of immigration status, and additionally strong support (68%) for insurance and government plans like Medicaid to cover abortions just like other health services.
Latino voters show solid support for inclusive measures on the ballot this fall, with 61% support for enshrining abortion rights in the Colorado constitution (Amendment 79) and 58% support for amending the Colorado constitution to remove the ban on same-sex marriage (Amendment J).
Launched in 2021, the Colorado Latino Agenda (CLA) is a statewide public research initiative co-led by Voces Unidas and the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR). Now in its fourth year, the 2024 CLPA report is informed by a statewide poll of 1,600 Latino registered voters, providing a representative, nonpartisan snapshot of views of the state's second-largest and second-fastest-growing ethnic voting bloc.
“After four years of research, the trend of economic challenges facing Colorado’s Latino community is well established and action from officials at the local, state and federal levels is overdue,” said Alex Sánchez, President and CEO of Voces Unidas. “From immigration to healthcare to climate policy, this year’s report offers in-depth analysis by every congressional district and region of the state of the diverse needs, priorities, and the growing voice of the Latino community in Colorado.”
Polling for the 2024 CLPA was conducted online and over the phone, in both English and Spanish. BSP Research, a national firm with 20-plus years of helping community-based organizations research a diversifying United States, fielded the poll from July 5 - Aug. 5, 2024. The margin of error was ±2.4%. The poll included an oversample of Latino voters who reside in CD-8 (n=354), the district with the largest Latino population in Colorado, and included respondents from every region and congressional district in the state to provide the opportunity to explore variation across districts and regions.
“Since 2021, the Colorado Latino Policy Agenda has served as the largest poll of Latino registered voters in the state, providing both a robust annual data set and an opportunity to explore potential differences or similarities in perspectives and priorities of Colorado’s substantial Latino population over the past years,” said Dr. Gabriel Sanchez, who led the poll for BSP Research. “While data from the 2024 poll reveals increasing emphasis on issues like immigration, homelessness, and healthcare, the financial vulnerability of many Latino residents of Colorado remains an unavoidable theme for a sizable portion of the Latino community in the face of enduring economic headwinds.”
Latinos in Colorado continue to struggle financially and rank economic concerns among four of the top five most important issues for state and federal elected officials to prioritize in 2024. For the third consecutive year, addressing inflation topped the list of both state (47%) and federal (42%) priorities, followed by improving wages and income (37% state, 35% federal) as the cost of living continues to outpace income levels of the community, particularly when it comes to healthcare (No. 3 federal priority) and housing (No. 3 state priority and No. 4 federal).
“Addressing affordable and sustainable housing” polled slightly higher as a priority for state policymakers than federal, with 24% of Latino voters identifying it as a top state priority (compared to 20% as a federal priority), reinforced by a majority (55%) of Latino voters saying elected officials have not been effective at addressing the issue in their community. The cost of housing and inflation overall is compounded by a general sense of economic stagnation within the Latino community, where 30% of Latinos say their financial situation has not improved over the past 12 months and another 35% say their situation has become worse. An alarming majority (56%) of Latinos across the state report having $1,000 or less in their savings, including 27% who have less than $100 to lean on in case of an emergency.
Addressing gun violence is also a recurring priority for Latino voters in 2024, ranking as the fifth-most important issue for elected officials to address at the federal level (18%). While the percentage was slightly lower at the state level (17%) this year, gun violence ranked as the sixth-most important issue facing the Latino community, while homelessness (23%) ranked as the fourth-most important issue for state officials to address.
Although no single immigration issue ranked among the top five priorities, the 2024 poll confirmed that immigration policy, in general, is a top priority for Latino voters in Colorado. Roughly a third of Latinos (30%) prioritize federal immigration issues in the 2024 poll, with 17% saying “protecting immigrant rights/immigration reform” should be a top priority and 13% saying federal officials should “increase border security/limit immigration.” Ranking sixth overall, protection of immigrant rights remains a top federal policy priority for Latino registered voters, placing it among the 10 most important issues for Congress and the President to address for the third consecutive year.
Poll respondents continue to support humane and common-sense immigration policy reforms over more authoritarian approaches to enforcement like mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and their families (59% oppose). In 2023, nearly three-fourths of Latino voters expressed support for President Joe Biden to take executive action to provide work permits to undocumented immigrants to live and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation. The same number (72%) of voters polled in 2024 support Biden’s executive order that expedites work visas for DACA holders and Dreamers with a college degree and a job offer. Nearly as many (68%) agree with Biden’s executive order making it easier for some undocumented spouses of U.S. Citizens to legalize their status, including 42% who said they strongly agree. Additionally, two out of three Latinos (66%) oppose changing the Constitution to deny citizenship to children born in the U.S. if their parents are not U.S. citizens.
While nearly half (49%) of Latino voters believe the state of Colorado is currently on the right track, 51% of the 1,600 Latino voters polled in 2024 believe that the nation is headed in the wrong direction, compared to 39% who think it is headed in the right direction. While those numbers demonstrate a positive shift in attitude over 2023 (57% and 30%), this is the fourth consecutive year (polling began in 2021) a majority of Latinos believe the nation remains off track. Notably, Latinas are 19% more likely than Latino men to believe the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction in 2024.
The pronounced dissatisfaction among Latinas may be a reflection of laws passed last year that limit or ban access to abortion, which proved to be a strong driver for getting Latinas and Latinos out to vote in 2023. That trend shows signs of continuing in 2024 as 61% of voters polled expressed support for an amendment enshrining abortion rights in the Colorado constitution, on the ballot this November as Amendment 79. Additionally, more than three fourths of Latino voters (77%) support access to reproductive healthcare for all, regardless of immigration status, with 68% in support of allowing insurance and government plans like Medicaid to cover abortions just like other health services.
“We have long known that restricting access to safe, legal abortion puts people in dangerous situations and goes against the desires of Latino voters in Colorado, and the 2024 CLPA statistically reinforces the importance our community places on the freedom to make their own decisions,” said Dusti Gurule, President and CEO of the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR). “The vast majority of Latino voters favor guaranteeing the right to an abortion in the Colorado constitution, and they also show strong support for expanding state-funded insurance programs to cover abortion care as a way to address economic and systemic inequities impacting Latinas’ abilities to lead safe, healthy, and self-determined lives.”
At 17% of Colorado's overall eligible voter population, the Latino electorate has had significant influence in recent federal and state elections. It continues to outpace other racial groups in growth in the eligible voter population in the state. However, findings from the past four years show that Latino voter outreach and mobilization have fallen far short of where they should be to see Latino voter turnout reach its full potential, with just 65% of the Latino electorate saying they are 100% certain they will vote this November. According to this year’s poll, 44% of Latinos statewide have not yet been contacted by anyone about registering or voting, indicating that candidates and parties are not working hard enough to court the Latino vote.
A goal of the annual CLPA is to inform elected officials of opportunities to connect and respond to the concerns of this important constituency by presenting the Latino community’s most relevant issues in real-time. Beyond the priority issues highlighted here, the 2024 report also delves into education policy, discrimination and racial justice, climate and environmental justice, tax policies, and other issues impacting voters in the upcoming election and beyond. Voces Unidas and COLOR encourage all those interested in the views of Latinos in Colorado on pressing policy, political, and other relevant issues in the state to download and read the full report at Coloradolatinopolicyagenda.org.