Photo: Eroin Schaff / New York Times

Latinos are young. Latinos are working class. Latinos vote. These are the three perspectives every candidate, regardless of political party, should keep in mind.

I spent the past two years interviewing dozens of this nation’s Latino leaders, and poring through data for a book. If there is a typical Latino I had to conjure it would be a male construction worker with no college degree.

As coronavirus ravages the country, forcing some states to postpone their primary elections, based on the research, Latinos will show up to the polls this November and cast the deciding vote against the sitting president.

“Most of the forecasts are that the economy will be in very bad shape for the rest of this year,” said Matt Barreto, co-founder of the research and polling firm Latino Decisions. “Latinos will be hit particularly hard by the economic downturn because they find themselves in jobs that don’t have nearly as many protections as others. I would expect by the time it plays out that this will end up hurting Trump. ”

Barreto is right in that no one has felt the brunt of economic inequality and crises like Latinos. It is no wonder that so many corralled around a self-described socialist, Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Sanders, who won the Latino vote in California, Texas and Nevada, and outpaced all other candidates in fundraising in the community, invested heavily in hiring Latino campaign staff members. He also ran on a platform that catered to the concerns of young and working-class people.

Latinos are this nation’s youngest demographic group, with a median age of 28, according to Pew Research Center. For context, the median age for white Americans is 43, followed by 36 for Asian Americans, and 34 for Black Americans.

Latinos are such a young population that a third of them are not old enough to vote.

In addition, despite hard-fought gains in higher education, Latinos are the least likely to attain a college degree. Increasingly, they are overrepresented in community colleges, but still not obtaining that all-elusive four-year degree.

The primary barrier is money. Latinos are the likeliest in this country to toil in hourly wage jobs such as retail, caregiving and construction, but they still are not able to afford college. Or many leave their studies to go to work. Latinos’ young age combined with their working-class status are why proposals such as work permits for immigrants, tuition-free college and publicly financed health care are popular in the community.

“I've always been a super-independent person to the point that people thought that I was an only child because I was just like, ‘Listen, I'm going to figure it out,’” said Los Angeles-based poet Yosimar Reyes, who was 28 when I interviewed him a year ago. “My parents or my grandparents don't have time to tell me how to go through college. Even if I wanted to go to college, they will have no idea how much it costs, or where to go. I had to figure all that on my own.”

Normally, young people and those without college degrees are the least likely to vote. However, contrary to conventional wisdom, registered Latinos vote, and in impressive numbers. Out of eligible voters, Latinos vote at even higher numbers than their white non-Hispanic counterparts.

In the past two national election cycles, 2016 and 2018, 75% of eligible Latino voters cast a ballot compared to 72% of registered white voters, according to the U.S. Census. In 2018, a record-breaking 29 million Latinos were eligible to vote, accounting for 12.8% of all eligible voters. Latinos comprised 11% of all voters on election day, nearly matching their share of eligible voters, which is unheard of for any group — and much less in a non-presidential election year.

Exit polling from the 2018 elections suggests that Latinos, along with other people of color, helped feed the “blue wave” in the U.S. House of Representatives, giving Democrats control of at least one chamber of Congress.

The 2018 midterm elections saw the highest Latino voter turnout in a non-presidential year, and is only expected to skyrocket in 2020 “if that anger and frustration continues,” Barreto said. “Voters come out to vote when they are angry and frustrated. That was the path that we were already on. We were seeing a lot of interest in politics during the presidential primaries.”

Latinos, including young Cuban Americans far removed from the communist revolution experienced by their grandparents, lean Democratic. Barreto does not expect their voting preferences to change in the fall, especially not after the economic fallout from COVID-19.

While there is a deep commitment to family and education across Latino subgroups, there are also nuances in these communities. Candidates need to understand these differences to massively turn out the Latino vote all across the country.

The very populist message that catapulted Sanders among the West’s massive and politically active Mexican American population was also his downfall in the swing state of Florida. Polls leading up to that state’s primary on March 17 showed Joe Biden leading Sanders among Latino voters by eight percentage points, 48% to 40%.

That state’s largest Latino — or as they are referred to out east, “Hispanic” — populations are Puerto Rican and Cuban American, whose priorities are slightly different than their Mexican American counterparts.

For one, all Puerto Ricans and almost all Cuban Americans are U.S. citizens. Therefore, they are not riding on immigration reform to live, or even exist, in the country. And while Cuban Americans vote in high numbers, poverty and cultural differences around voting in Puerto Rico compared to the U.S. mainland dampen the Puerto Rican vote.

In fact, Puerto Rican voting lags behind all other Hispanic communities in Florida in spite of Puerto Ricans’ U.S. citizenship status. Statistically, 80% of eligible Puerto Ricans vote on the island, where voting is centered on the question of statehood. But once they settle in the U.S. mainland, only half as many bother to vote.

“In Puerto Rico, voting is the caravans, and you have the sound trucks,” Melissa Mark-Viverito, former New York City Council speaker, told an audience at the August 2018 Netroots Nation political convention in New Orleans. “It’s like an event — really, very energetic.”

Almost half a million Puerto Ricans were uprooted to Florida following Hurricane Maria’s wrath in September 2017. Many Puerto Ricans found themselves in largely central Florida, forced to secure a job, housing, schools for their children, health care and food assistance. Many suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental distress from having lost everything back home on the island.

“Learning a brand-new political system and actually voting is at the bottom of the priorities list,” Florida State Representative Amy Mercado, an Orlando Democrat, told a somber audience at Netroots Nation. “We are trying to talk to these people one person at a time. It’s not only about ‘Hey, you need to register to vote!’ It’s ‘Hey, welcome to Florida! How can we help you? What are the services that you need? How can we assist in those needs?’ And they are great and they are many.”

Mercado saw no other solution in get-out-the-vote efforts than knocking on people’s doors, and having a “one-on-one.” That conversation should include teaching people how to vote in the United States and tailoring their messaging to that community’s particular concerns. In other words, any candidate vying for victory needs to speak directly to this young, squeezed and yearning population.

Elisa Batista is a journalist, community organizer, and the lead author of the book “¡Presente! Latinx Power Remaking U.S. Democracy” (Routledge, 2020). She lives in Berkeley with her family.