A study by the Pew Research Center found that 36.2 million Latinos will be eligible to vote in 2024, up 4 million from the 2020 election. This makes Latino voters one of the most critical voting blocs, leading both Democrats and Republicans to ramp up their efforts to tap into such potential support. In Nevada, Latinos are projected to be crucial in both the presidential race and the contest for the state’s other Senate seat, pitting incumbent Jacky Rosen (D) and against Republican Sam Brown. Ads from both parties populate platforms like YouTube — one of the three most used apps by Hispanics — trying to win over the Latino voter bloc.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

What these ads, as well as the political machine, seem to miss is that Latinos are not a monolithic group. This can lead politicians to miss out on the many different factors that shape Latino identities. Voter tendencies can vary significantly between different Latino groups — and even within Latino families.

A multigenerational perspective

Rico Cortez is a Mexican American living in northern Nevada. He was raised by a single mother, Rebecca Guerrero, and his Latino roots, along with growing up with a strong matriarch, have shaped his political views. “Women’s rights are super important to me because women raised me. Women brought me into this world,” Cortez stated.

Latinos tend to put a larger emphasis on family than that of non-Hispanics. According to the Pew Research Center,84 percent of Latinos believe that family members are more important than friends. Cortez moved back to northern Nevada five years ago to care for his aging mother because his connection to his family is so important.

Rebecca Guerrero was born in Verdi, Nev., in 1929, making her 95 years old. Despite her age, she is still civically engaged and has consistently voted throughout her lifetime. For her, it was important to pass on this civic duty to her children. Her political identity has shaped Cortez, and today, both Guerrero and Cortez represent a unique part of the Latino vote in Nevada.

As a young mother, Guerrero struggled with the cost of living in Nevada. “Well, it was no picnic. It was rough because the man that I was married to didn’t care too much. And we had to go on welfare to get my kids what they needed,” she remembers. Rising rent prices, inflation and increasing the minimum wage have become increasingly important to Guerrero and her family.

This falls in line with the priorities of other Latino in Nevada. In the state with the largest Latino middle class, the cost of living is one of the most significant issues for many Latino voters. Eighty-four percent of Latinos in Nevada agree that it is difficult for middle-class families to prosper in the United States. Republicans — like GOP Gov. Joe Lombardo — have capitalized on this by touting their ability to do things like loosen requirements for business licenses in the state and tighten immigration laws to save jobs.

Immigration is another critical issue for Latinos in Nevada, and Guerrero has her own immigration story. At 10 years old, she had to leave her dying grandfather in Durango, Mexico, to travel to live with her aunts in California. Leaving him behind was hard for her., “I had to kneel and have my grandfather do the sign of the cross and bless me. Then I crossed, he stayed on that side, and I came to this side,” she says.

While some Republicans have used immigration as a selling point to Latino voters, the Trump campaign has pushed anti-immigration rhetoric and massive amounts of disinformation, leaving some voters, like Guerrero, upset; when asked about Trump, she stated, “If you don’t have a good president, well, everything goes to pot. If we get Trump, well, Trump is an asswipe.”

According to aUnivision poll, Latino voters in Nevada favor Kamala Harris by 18 points. While both Guerrero and Cortez will be voting for Harris in November, 41 percent of Latino voters are undecided. Issues like abortion and border security are making some lean toward the former president.

Abortion is one of the most significant issues for Cortez in this election cycle. He sees reproductive rights as an essential part of supporting women, “I’ve just always been an advocate for women. I don’t want to see my little nieces having to fight for things that my mother already fought for.”

For Guerrero, abortion has been a bit of a gray area. She comes from a strong Catholic background. Catholic doctrine opposes abortion. And withCatholicism being the largestfaith amongst Latinos, it can sway values and belief systems. While Guerrero is still very religious, time and conversations with her son eventually led her to support a woman’s right to choose. Cortez and Guerrero are among the 44 percent of Nevadan Latinos who say they will vote “yes” on a ballot measure that would establish the right to abortion in the Nevadan Constitution.

The issue of abortion reflects how Latino viewpoints can differ significantly depending on factors such as age, religion and party affiliation. While the Latino vote will be crucial in Nevada and across the nation in November, it is not monolithic, and many different cultures and life experiences shape the identities and values of Latinos in the Silver State.

Regardless of the differences, Cortez is proud to be Latino and is excited to see how important the Latino vote has become in Nevada. He celebrates the sense of community he feels being Mexican American: “I love that sense of community. I think we have a strong sense of community, and we care for each other and look after each other.”

In the weeks leading to Election Day, The Fulcrum will continue to publish stories from across the country featuring the people who make up the powerful Latino electorate to better understand the hopes and concerns of an often misunderstood, diverse community.

What do you think about this article? We’d like to hear from you. Please send your questions, comments, and ideas to newsroom@fulcrum.us.

MADISON – Last month the Wisconsin volleyball team travelled to Evanston, Illinois, for a match with Northwestern and came home with a straight set win the Badgers captured by winning each set by at least nine points.

The rematch wasn’t nearly as easy even though UW scored a sweep in front of 7,229 Sunday afternoon at the UW Field House.

The Badgers, who are ranked No. 9 by the American Volleyball Coaches Association, posted a 25-13, 25-23, 25-20 victory. UW recorded its fourth .400 hitting match of the season and recorded double-digit blocks for the third straight match.

The Badgers also held Northwestern (3-11, 1-5 Big Ten) to .211 hitting, which on the surface is good but not nearly as good as the first meeting when they held the Wildcats to a 0.67 hitting percentage.

Northwestern hit .324 during the final two sets.

“I’m not so sure we were as strong defensively as we like to pride ourselves on there towards the end,” UW coach Kelly Sheffield said. “But I’m certainly happy to get a 3-0 sweep and moving on to the next.”

Senior Sarah Franklin (14 kills, .355 hitting percentage) led the team in kills. The Badgers had four players take more than 10 swings and all hit better than .350. The others were senior Anna Smrek (13 kills, .500), senior Julia Orzol (10 kills, .526) and senior Devyn Robinson (seven kills, .455).

At the net, senior Caroline Crawford had eight blocks, one off her season high, and the Badgers finished with 12.

The victory was Wisconsin’s fifth straight and raised its record to 11-4 overall and 5-1 in the Big Ten.

Germantown graduate Lily Wagner, a sophomore whose mother, Amy Lee, played for the Badgers from 1994-97, shared Northwestern’s team lead of 10 kllls with Alexa Rousseau.

Graduate student Sophia Summers added seven kills and a .778 hitting percentage for the Wildcats but didn’t get a kill during the final set.

“I think our blockers didn’t do a great job of reading the situation and what our opponent was trying to do,” Sheffield said. “And I’m not sure we were always working hard enough to get good really good swings, terminating swings out of system for the first part of the match.

“I didn’t think our work-rate rate was particularly high, but there my be an element of nitpicking when you sweep a Big Ten opponent and hit north of .400.”

The match turned in the second set when Northwestern couldn’t put away UW after taking a 19-16 lead. Freshman Charlie Fuerbringer had a service run of five straight points to help the Badgers turn a 19-16 deficit into a 22-19 lead. Smrek had two kills during that run and five during the final seven points of the period.

“I just wanted to keep going,” Smrek said. “When we can get on a run and everything is working and in system we’ve just got to get the job done and just go up, give confidence to each other and take big rips.”

That stretch set the tone for the final set, which though close UW never trailed.

Robinson had five kills during that portion of the match when UW put on a clinic of shot making. Franklin, Orzol and Smrek also driled difficult shots that led to kills as the Badgers completed their fifth straight sweep.

Up next: No. 11 Oregon Friday night at the Field House.

MADISON, Wis. — Democratic Party officials are making campaign stops across Wisconsin on Monday, October 14.

First, Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Governor Tim Walz will arrive in the morning at the Chippewa Valley Regional Airport in Eau Claire before participating at a political event. Specific details for this event have not been released.

Then Gov. Walz will travel to the Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport. He will join Governor Tony Evers and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer at a campaign rally to kickoff of the Harris-Walz “Driving Forward” Blue Wall Bus Tour. Governors Whitmer and Evers are planned to continue on the bus tour through the key battleground states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

This will be Gov. Walz’s fifth visit to Wisconsin since becoming the Democratic party’s vice presidential nominee. He last joined Vice President Harris at a campaign rally in Eau Claire in August.

First Lady of the United States Dr. Jill Biden will also be in Wisconsin on Monday, traveling to Madison to campaign on reproductive rights. This will be her second visit to the Badger state.