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The number of immigrant voters is growing — and that means a more diverse electorate in Texas

 A sign with the message "Vote Here Today" is posted near the entrance to the Denton Civic Center parking lot.
Jacob Wells
/
KERA News
A sign with the message "Vote Here Today" is posted near the entrance to the Denton Civic Center parking lot.

That’s according to an analysis of data from the Current Population Survey by the American Immigration Council, a nonpartisan research and advocacy group. Its report finds that eligible immigrant voters account for 11 % of the electorate.

Jeremy Robbins, the group’s executive director, said the rapid growth of different demographic groups will have an impact at the ballot box and on both major political parties.

“The population increasingly is immigrant voters. It’s Hispanic voters…black voters…Asian American voters,” Robbins said. “All of those groups are increasing dramatically in their share of the vote.”

In Texas, the share of eligible Asian immigrant voters increased by 1.2 percentage points, which means they now account for 4.7 % of the electorate.

Robbins said politicians need to pay more attention to this demographic group, which historically has been ignored. Now though, he said, the public is seeing more ads in different languages and more outreach to Asian immigrants in large metro areas.

“Like all voting blocs, the Asian American voting block is incredibly heterogeneous,” he said. “You have really conservative pockets. You have very progressive pockets. But there are some real concerns that accrue to Asian American voters.

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Got a tip? Email Stella M. Chávez at schavez@kera.org. You can follow Stella on Twitter @stellamchavez.

Copyright 2022 KERA. To see more, visit KERA.

Stella Chávez is KERA’s education reporter/blogger. Her journalism roots run deep: She spent a decade and a half in newspapers – including seven years at The Dallas Morning News, where she covered education and won the Livingston Award for National Reporting, which is given annually to the best journalists across the country under age 35. The award-winning entry was  “Yolanda’s Crossing,” a seven-part DMN series she co-wrote that reconstructs the 5,000-mile journey of a young Mexican sexual-abuse victim from a small Oaxacan village to Dallas. For the last two years, she worked for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where she was part of the agency’s outreach efforts on the Affordable Care Act and ran the regional office’s social media efforts.