DENVER — For the second year, Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR), along with Voces Unidas de las Montañas, released a survey that gives insight into the most important issues for Latinos in Colorado.
"And this year we continue to increase the sample size to ensure that we do better at capturing the sentiment of Latinas and at the nose, especially in rural Colorado," said Alex Sanchez, president and CEO of Voces Unidas de las Montañas.
The survey was taken by 1,504 Latino registered voters. Nearly 1,000 of these voters were from outside of the Denver metro and spread throughout the state – 44% considered themselves liberal, 40% moderate and 17% conservative.
The survey found that four of the top five issues identified by Latino voters relate to economics. The top two include jobs and the economy, as well as the rising cost of living, plus inflation.
"Latinas and Latinos are struggling financially. They're feeling the pains, the pocketbook issues are real. And the data supports that," Sanchez said.
Aside from economics, addressing gun violence and mass shootings were also among the top five, ranking fourth at both the state and federal levels – 83% of respondents said they're concerned their child could be the victim of a mass shooting, according to the report.
83% also showed high support for expanding access to health insurance for all Colorado residents, including undocumented immigrants.
For Sanchez, one piece that stood out to him was Latino's lack of trust in the water quality.
Water quality is of particular concern, given that 30% of respondents do not trust or drink the water in their homes, which increases to 40% among mobile-home residents, according to the survey.
Of the Latino voters surveyed, 85% of them said they are likely to vote in the November 2022 election, with 58% saying they have not been contacted by any candidate, party representative or community organization this year.
"And I think this is a call to action to the political ecosystem, to nonprofits, to community members, to say, if we really want Latinos anything else to turn out at the levels that they sort of want to, we have a long ways to go," Sanchez said.
Read a full copy of the findings and the survey here.
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