To stay up to date on our electoral advocacy and how we are mobilizing the 2020 Latinx vote in Wisconsin to defeat Trump, please follow our Voces de la Frontera Action Facebook Page.
Assembly speaker Robin Vos has blamed the spread of COVID-19 in Wisconsin on “immigrant culture.” State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald has attempted to limit early polling locations in Milwaukee, despite the fact that increasing the amount of early voting locations enables more people to vote safely during this pandemic. Most recently, Senator Ron Johnson voted to not include mixed-immigration status families in the forthcoming HEALS act. Punishing U.S. citizens for being married to immigrants is not only cruel. It discourages U.S. citizens from exercising their right to vote.
These statements are just the most recent examples of Wisconsin Republican leaders using the pandemic as a method of racialized voter suppression, as was the case on April 7th when thousands of Black and Latinx voters were forced to risk their lives to vote. Wisconsin’s COVID-19 death racial disparity is 3rd worse in the country as of late May 2020, with Black people 5.7 times more likely to die of the illness than their white counterparts according to the APM Research Lab. These recent statements from Wisconsin Republican leaders follow a shameful and long record of anti-Latinx voter suppression in Wisconsin – through gerrymandering, requiring photo IDs, and wrongful voter purging.
Now is our time to push back on relentless voter suppression in Wisconsin, which has targeted our Black and Brown communities during this pandemic. Republicans are making a political calculation: Wisconsin’s Black and Latinx population traditionally votes around issues of social justice, immigrant rights, and working class rights. Furthermore, the Wisconsin Latinx vote now has more momentum than ever before. Many immigrant parents’ kids are freshly over 18 and for the first time have the electoral power to fight back and give political voice to their families and communities. We also know that the Democratic Party’s VAN voter database is imperfect and inherently racist, because of the whitewashed and racist history of the U.S. Census. At Voces de la Frontera Action, we firmly believe that the best way to mobilize the Brown and Black vote in Wisconsin is at the grassroots level. We must encourage our friends and families to get out and vote — tomorrow, and moving forward to the general.
The goal is to stop the Trump agenda and fight for the issues that matter most to us. Amid a global pandemic that is disproportionately affecting people of color, immigrants, and the working class, we need elected officials who will fight for us. We at Voces will be voting for people who have proven their commitment to immigrant and labor rights, and we encourage you to do the same.
Here is our full list of endorsed candidates for the August, 11 2020 Wisconsin primaries:
In Milwaukee County:
- JoAnna Bautch and Sylvia Ortiz-Valez for 8th District State Representative (dual endorsement)
- Marisabel Cabrera for 9th District State Representative
- Jacob Malinowski, representing Greendale, Greenfield, and Franklin for 82nd District State Representative
- LaTonya Johnson for 6th District State Senator
In Dane County:
- Nada Elmikashfi for 26th District State Senator
In Brown County:
- Kristina Shelton for 90th District State Representative
- Jonathon Hansen for 30th District State Senator
We firmly believe that these candidates will champion immigrant and labor rights in Wisconsin. Use your vote on August 11th to uplift our communities and mobilize the Latinx vote. We encourage anyone and everyone to get involved during this critical time. Now is not the time to sit back! If you are interested in helping mobilize Wisconsin’s 2020 Latinx vote, go to vdlfa.org to become a Voces de la Frontera member today. Adelante, si se puede! And no hate in the dairy state!
- - - - - - - - - - -