Stunning new numbers show a growing NC political player - Hispanics

There’s a quiet demographic revolution happening in North Carolina, but it will not be quiet much longer.

In a recent blog post, Rebecca Tippett of UNC’s Carolina Demography noted that the 2020 census has confirmed the passing of a milestone in that change: “North Carolina’s Hispanic population is now greater than one million people.”

That means that one in every 10 Tar Heels is Hispanic. The reported number – 1,118,596 – is likely an undercount, given the challenges of the pandemic and the Trump administration’s effort to suppress the count of minorities.

Still, the reported numbers are stunning enough. In 1990, the state’s Hispanic population was only 75,000. The number climbed quickly over the next 20 years and between 2010 and 2020 rose by nearly 320,000 – the largest increase of any racial/ethnic group in the state. It’s expected to grow by another 300,000 by 2030.

There’s a reason the scale of that growth might surprise many North Carolinians. Hispanic residents have been overlooked or deliberately ignored. To some extent, their lack of visibility reflects the efforts of many to avoid official notice, either because they are undocumented or they are related to someone who is.

And there are other reasons. There is a language barrier that isolates many and political neglect that has left Hispanics almost politically voiceless. There are 170 members of North Carolina’s General Assembly. Only one is Hispanic, Democrat Ricky Hurtado of Alamance County.

But that outsider status is changing as North Carolina’s 1.1 million Hispanics – once mostly immigrants – are now about 60 percent U.S.-born and coming of political age.

While their numbers are concentrated in the Triangle and Mecklenburg County, Hispanics also are becoming a larger voting block in rural areas where they are essential to the workforce in the meatpacking and agricultural industries.

Juvencio Rocha-Peralta, executive director of the Association of Mexicans in North Carolina (AMEXCAN), said an influx of young Hispanics is saving some rural towns that have an otherwise aging and dwindling population. In North Carolina, the median age of Hispanics is 25. The median age for non-Hispanic whites is 44.

“If it were not for the Latino community, some small towns would disappear,” Rocha-Peralta said.

Hispanic leaders stress that many Hispanics — or Latinos, a narrower term describing people of Latin American descent — are perceived as favoring Democrats, but they come from different countries and have political views that range from liberal to conservative.

Ivan Parra, executive director of the North Carolina Congress of Latino Organizations, a statewide network of 70 Latino groups, said, “It’s important for Democrats and Republicans to think about how they relate to (Hispanics) because nobody can take their support for granted.”

Nonetheless, Republican policies are making them vote Democratic.

Parra said a recent survey of North Carolina Hispanics found their top issues were tenant rights, access to health care, more trusting relations with sheriffs and police and public school funding. Republicans in the General Assembly have sided with landlords, blocked Medicaid expansion, sought to have sheriffs help deport undocumented immigrants and left schools short-staffed for bilingual teachers and counselors.

“Latinos don’t see in the North Carolina General Assembly a constituency of elected officials who are keeping their interests in mind,” Parra said. “Their policies reject some of the things our families need and want.”

The time when such treatment of a rising minority is politically feasible is coming to an end. Their numbers are growing. So are their votes. They are now positioned to be the difference in a closely divided state.

“This state is still very purple,” Parra said. “Its future, in competitive elections, is going to be decided by the Latino vote.”

This story was originally published November 1, 2021 at 5:00 AM.