Politics

Column: In 2024, Latinos finally became Americans at the ballot box

Published

3 days ago

December 30, 2024

Column: In 2024, Latinos finally became Americans at the ballot box

Forty years ago this November, Cesar Chavez gave a speech at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club that was as much of a promise as a warning.

The main topic of the 25-minute talk was the lessons he learned from a career organizing campesinos in California and beyond, in the face of fierce opposition.

“All my life, I have been driven by one dream, one goal, one vision,” Chavez told the hoity-toity crowd. “To overthrow a farm labor system in this nation which treats farmworkers as if they were not important human beings.”

The United Farm Workers leader praised the gains his union was able to achieve. But he felt the big payoff was still ahead for Latinos. They were growing in economic, political and demographic influence — and Chavez felt that memories of past injustices would inform how they wielded power, once they attained it.

“The day will come when the politicians do the right thing by our people out of political necessity and not out of charity or idealism,” Chavez said, sounding matter-of-fact in a recording of the speech. “That day may not come this year. That day may not come during this decade. But it will come, someday.”

Chavez’s Commonwealth Club address is little known outside of academic and activist circles, but I’ve long considered it a masterpiece of prophecy. He mostly called it right: Latinos now make up a plurality of residents in California and are the largest minority group in the country. Researchers at Cal Lutheran and UCLA found earlier this year that if Latinos in the U.S. were their own nation, their $3.7 trillion gross domestic product would rank fifth in the world, behind Germany and ahead of India.

Meanwhile, the number of Latinos in elected office grows every year, from school boards to state legislatures to both chambers of Congress. The political rise was long fueled by a liberal formula pioneered by Chavez’s movimiento: run as a Democrat, align yourself with unions and social justice groups and use the plight of the least among Latinos — farmworkers during Chavez’s era, illegal immigrants for the past generation — as a moral issue to push Latinos to the ballot box and reject Republican everything.

This winning template spawned fears among conservatives that Latinos — especially Mexican Americans — were engaging in a conspiracy to relegate white people to second-class status, and hopes among Democrats for a permanent majority. It seemed to follow Chavez’s boast that Latinos would create a new, more-just way for this country, one that would manifest Jesus’ teaching that the last would be first and the first would be last.

“And on that day, our nation shall fulfill its creed — and that fulfillment shall enrich us all,” Chavez said in the speech.

But as 2024 concludes, Chavez’s dream of Latino power isn’t playing out the way he forecast.

BooBoo, left, and Gil Tejada laugh during a recording of an episode of the “American Cholo” podcast in their North Hollywood studios. Tejada, a former Hillary Clinton supporter, voted for Donald Trump this year and urged his followers to do the same.

(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)

Donald Trump, who has lambasted Latinos all the way from his 2015 speech announcing his first presidential run to a recent social media post insinuating he would take back the Panama Canal, improved his performance with Latino voters in each of his campaigns.

In Los Angeles County, a Times map of the November election results showed that the biggest drift toward Trump didn’t happen in Republican strongholds but in purple, middle-class Latino cities like Downey and Whittier and blue-collar, Democratic-run, overwhelmingly immigrant communities like Bell Gardens and Maywood.

Surveys showed that Latino voters this year didn’t care about anything other than themselves. Issues like the economy and housing were their top concerns, while securing the border was more important than trying to secure amnesty for people without papers. Indeed, the proportion of Latinos who think illegal immigration is a problem is nearly the same as it was among whites 30 years ago, when California voters overwhelmingly passed the anti-immigrant Proposition 187 while hundreds of thousands of Latinos marched against it.

Kamala Harris still won the Latino vote nationwide, but the Latino-Trump cumbia has drawn headlines, and not just because he outperformed any previous Republican presidential nominee among Latinos. The disbelief and soul-searching among Latino activists and finger-pointing by Democrats will continue throughout 2025, predicated on the idea that Latinos who went with Trump voted against their self-interest. In other words, Latinos didn’t act like Latinos are supposed to, whatever the hell that means.

That’s why I say that 2024 is the year that Latinos finally became Americans.

As patronizing and silly as it sounds, there is no historic precedent for this moment. Even though Spanish was spoken in what’s now the U.S. decades before Jamestown, Americans have long thought of Latinos as a people apart who would poison the proverbial melting pot the more their spice dominated the stew. For more than a century, Latino activists have pursued equal rights with this in mind, casting the people they fought for as a helpless, forever-victimized group that could best find strength through ethnic solidarity.

Instead, Latinos forsook movement politics in this election and seem poised to do the same in the future. We’re now in a political Bizarro World where the GOP thinks Latinos are a winnable group while Dems no longer see us as automatic salvation. Both parties will fight for our votes by de-emphasizing appeals to ethnicity and instead focusing on meat-and-potatoes issues — you know, the way they usually do with “regular” voters.

Latinos are no longer the sleeping giant of American politics. We are the giant. Where we decide to go is where the country will go. We’ve joined the metaphorical firsts — and like previous groups, we’re now spitting on the lasts and want nothing to do with them.

This mainstreaming is something I’ve been calling out throughout the 25 years I’ve covered Latino politics. This year, I saw it play out it in real time.

In the spring, I wrote a four-part series about the history of Latino politics in Los Angeles. In August, I took a seven-day road trip across the American Southwest to gauge the political temperature of Latinos before the Democratic National Convention. I talked to Latino Trump supporters throughout the fall, including many who admitted they once leaned liberal but felt abandoned by Democrats, prompting them to ride shotgun on the Trump Train.

The thread that connected my stories was that change was inevitable, and banking on Latinos to stay in Democratic amber was electoral suicide.

UCLA professor Kelly Lytle Hernandez giving a tour

Wokosos and conservatives alike capitalized on dozing Dems who are finally awake to the desmadre before them. On L.A.’s Eastside, the cradle of Latino politics, Democratic Socialist City Council candidates swept away the political machines that dominated elections for decades. On the other end of the political spectrum, Latino Republican legislators now populate Sacramento in such numbers that the California Latino Legislative Caucus is having conversations about dropping its longstanding ban on GOP members.

Latinos are still nowhere near where we need to be in American life to brag about power commensurate with our numbers. There are still too many issues we need to work on, from educational attainment to the cost of living to health and housing disparities.

But the 2024 election showed that many Latinos are open to dropping the left-leaning politics of the past. The party that capitalizes on this opening is the party that can win.

This makes me think again about Chavez’s Commonwealth Club speech. What animated him most was the idea of a California “dominated” by the descendants of farmworkers, who would change things for the better and never forget where they came from, even generations later.

“Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed,” he said. “You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.”

In 2024, Latinos showed that we are not afraid to think of a post-Latino future, at least at the ballot box. We’re now ready for politicians to treat us as Americans, for better or worse. And wasn’t that the goal all along?

Politics

Mike Johnson gets public GOP Senate support ahead of tight House speaker vote

Published

7 hours ago

January 2, 2025

Press Room

Mike Johnson gets public GOP Senate support ahead of tight House speaker vote

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., received public support from Republicans in the Senate as he faces an uncertain vote Friday to determine whether he will maintain the role in the new Congress.

“My friend [Johnson] has done an incredible job in the House, and I’m glad he’s at the helm there as Congress looks forward to growing our economy and safeguarding our communities in the new year,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., on X.

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Sens. John Kennedy, left, and Bill Cassidy, right, threw their public support behind fellow Louisiana Republican Mike Johnson for speaker. (Reuters)

Johnson also got the backing of the other member of Lousiana’s Senate delegation, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. “I agree with President Trump that [Johnson] is the right man to lead. He’s a committed conservative and a man of integrity,” he wrote on X, referencing President-elect Donald Trump’s recent endorsement.

During the last-minute government-spending fight last month, most Republican senators were careful not to call for Johnson’s replacement. However, that didn’t stop others, such as Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, from suggesting that someone else would do a better job.

BERNIE SANDERS PLANS TO SPEARHEAD LEGISLATION ON KEY TRUMP PROPOSAL

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump listens as Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks during a press conference at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on April 12, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

“Technically, the rules of the House—I don’t think you have to be a member of the House to be speaker. And other people talked about it,” Paul told reporters in December. He noted that he has previously gotten stray votes to be speaker, as has Trump.

“And so, we’ll leave it open to interpretation. I think that, hey, seriously, Elon Musk is having an impact.”

When asked about his confidence in Johnson, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., sidestepped, saying, “I can’t make a decision. I don’t know him that well. He’s got to work with everybody else. He doesn’t have to work with us.”

DEM SENATOR REVEALS HOW SHE NARROWLY WON KEY STATE THAT TRUMP FLIPPED: ‘BE PRACTICAL TO FIND RESULTS’

Since the House speaker will be selected solely by the lower chamber, few Republican senators are expected to weigh in publicly. But the fact that some have is notable in and of itself.

In order to be elected as the speaker of the House, a member must get a majority of the votes cast. Depending on whether all House members are there, how many vacancies there are, and whether anyone chooses to vote “present,” thereby lowering the majority threshold, Johnson could be in a situation where he can only afford to lose one GOP vote.

There are still several House members that have said they are unsure whether they will back Johnson.

REPUBLICANS HAMMER BIDEN FOR FEDERAL DEATH ROW REPRIEVES AHEAD OF LEAVING OFFICE

Speaker Mike Johnson, left, and Rep. Thomas Massie (Getty)

Additionally, at least one Republican lawmaker is a “no,” even after Trump’s endorsement.

“I respect and support President Trump, but his endorsement of Mike Johnson is going to work out about as well as his endorsement of Speaker Paul Ryan,” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., wrote on X. “We’ve seen Johnson partner with the democrats to send money to Ukraine, authorize spying on Americans, and blow the budget.”

The speaker vote is set to take place on Friday to set the new Congress in motion.

Julia Johnson is a politics writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business, leading coverage of the U.S. Senate. She was previously a politics reporter at the Washington Examiner.

Follow Julia’s reporting on X at @JuliaaJohnson_ and send tips to Julia.Johnson@fox.com.

Politics

Column: L.A. County's Hall of Administration should stand, Janice Hahn says. And not because of her dad

Published

7 hours ago

January 2, 2025

Press Room

Column: L.A. County's Hall of Administration should stand, Janice Hahn says. And not because of her dad

I drove around downtown Los Angeles on a recent Friday morning looking for one of the Civic Center’s ugly ducklings.

The Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration … um, which building was it again?

It had been years since my only other visit, so unmemorable that I had forgotten how the ten-story structure looked. Google Maps gave me an address, but I was lost in a sea of architectural grandeur when I finally parked in a small lot near Temple and Grand. To my left was the majestic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Behind me were the Music Center’s elegant triplets of the arts: the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre.

In front of me was a building with cream-colored tiles that connected to a taller building that looked the same, except with windows.

Oh, yeah. That’s the Hall of Administration.

Seat of the county of Los Angeles since it opened in 1960, it looks like a Lego block with slits. No wonder it’s never gotten as much love from Angelenos as its flashier neighbors, especially L.A. City Hall, which looms to the south like the haughty older civic cousin it is.

That’s why there hasn’t been any uproar since the county Board of Supervisors voted in November to buy the 52-story Gas Co. Tower for $200 million — a bargain worthy of the late, great 99 Cents Only chain, since its appraised value is $632 million — with plans to relocate county workers there, from the Hall of Administration and elsewhere, as early as this summer.

Nearly a third of the purchase price came from funds originally set aside to seismically retrofit the Hall of Administration and update its electrical system, effectively sentencing the place to the literal and historical scrap heap. The county’s preliminary plan calls for razing it, except for the portion where the supervisors hold their public meetings.

The sole “no” vote came from Janice Hahn, daughter of the Hall of Administration’s legendary namesake, the longest-serving supervisor in L.A. County history. She was waiting for me in the parking lot to give me a tour of the unloved building and argue for its virtue — and survival.

“This is Nate’s Lot,” she told me, explaining that it was named after a parking attendant who told her father he didn’t like working in the Hall of Administration’s underground garage. So the supervisor created the lot just for him.

“There’s history like that all around in a building like this,” said Hahn, Starbucks chai latte in hand, as we walked through the doors. Three staffers accompanied us, including Mark Baucum, who is both her son and her chief of staff.

“It has a warm feel, not like …” Her face scrunched as if she had stepped on a snail, and she waited a beat before referencing the county’s recent purchase. “That soulless skyscraper.”

Gloria Molina Grand Park is nestled alongside the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, left, in Los Angeles. City Hall towers in the background.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

The halls gleamed with vintage charm. Marble walls and terrazzo floors. Frosted windows on doors with the old-school gold sans serif font long used by county departments. Phone booths that still work. Wood-paneled elevators that Janice and her brother, former L.A. mayor and current Superior Court Judge Jim Hahn, rode as kids like they were at an amusement park.

We walked through the spacious main lobby, where people waited in line to pay their property taxes, and out of the building toward Hill Street.

“That soulless skyscraper doesn’t have a lobby like this,” Hahn said. Across the street was the Hall of Records, built in 1962. To our left were the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, opened in 1959, and Gloria Molina Grand Park.

“They’re not on the chopping block,” she said, referring to the buildings. “People once thought City Hall was too expensive to retrofit. Were it not for civic-minded people, it would’ve been torn down. What a tragedy that would’ve been.”

As we rounded the Hall of Administration’s western side to look at large, gold-colored statues of Moses and Thomas Jefferson, the wear-and-tear of the 75-year-old building quickly became evident. Chunks missing from window ledges. Chipped granite base. Cracks on the walls here and there.

“Yes, it needs work,” Hahn acknowledged, as Baucum helped a woman who couldn’t tell the difference between the Hall of Administration and the Stanley Mosk Courthouse. “We had some of that money, but it was used to buy … that soulless skyscraper. And we have a budget of $50 billion. We can do this.”

Hahn estimated the cost to be $700 million. A spokesperson for L.A. County Chief Executive Officer Fesia Davenport said the seismic retrofit is expected to cost about $700 million, with renovations and other needed repairs bringing the estimated total to $1.8 billion.

But should it be done? I wondered as we went back inside the Hall of Administration. What possible role could an empty building play, when the other four supervisors want to get the hell out of there, and all of the money set aside to take care of it has already been spent?

One person I figured might have some pity for the Hall of Administration was Supervisor Kathryn Barger. She’s worked there since 1989 — first as an aide, then as chief of staff to then-Supervisor Mike Antonovich, and for the last eight years in her current role.

“From an aesthetic point of view, not much there,” said Barger, who voted to buy the Gas Co. Tower, in a phone interview. “You go to City Hall, you’re like, ‘Wow.’”

She gets Hahn’s point that it’s a historic structure, but Barger is more focused on the price tag for renovation, which she put at $1.2 billion. “I cannot discount Janice, but we have to do right by the taxpayers,” she said.

Barger mentioned that the supervisors are going to need much more office space after voters in November approved an eventual expansion of the board from five members to nine. She also brought up the late Gloria Molina, who served alongside Kenneth Hahn and whom Barger got to know well while working for Antonovich.

“Her vision and dream was to create more open space, and it was always shot down,” Barger said. She suggested that the Board of Supervisors could knock down the Hall of Administration, which spans the length of two city blocks, and expand Gloria Molina Grand Park.

“This issue is emotional for [Hahn],” Barger said, “but you have to separate the emotional from the reality.”

Janice Hahn points to a plaque on a wall

Hahn brought up that charge herself, then disputed it.

“Every story written implies it’s because of my father,” Hahn told me as we stood in front of a plaque near the lobby praising Kenneth Hahn’s “unsurpassed legacy of good works” in 40 years as a county supervisor. He died in 1997.

“It’s not,” she continued. “People have said, ‘We’ll put his name on the skyscraper.’ Oh, hell no. He would’ve questioned the rationale of using certain budget stats to prove” the necessity of leaving the Hall of Administration, she said. “He would find holes in their argument and find $700 million to save this hall.”

The tour went on for about an hour, with Hahn greeting every single person she passed. We visited the Board of Supervisors’ meeting room, which will remain standing (“That’ll make a disjointed county government”), and finally went up to her office. A painting hangs near the entrance, depicting her on a couch with a portrait of her dad hovering above.

“This is my life,” Hahn cracked. “My dad always looking over my shoulder.”

We briefly sat down, then went outside to a terrace ringing the length of the Hall of Administration. The floor was peeling, but the view before us of the Civic Center and downtown was stunning.

I understood, and even appreciated, Hahn’s argument that moving the county offices from here, where other parts of L.A. government reside, would create “a gaping hole in the idea of civic togetherness,” as her son put it. But the fiscal reasoning against it was strong, I said, before asking if her crusade stood any chance of succeeding.

“I think so,” she said. “I think we’ll get the momentum. And Dad always loved a good fight.”

Her son pointed out a sliver of a skyscraper poking out behind another skyscraper. That was the Gas Co. Tower.

“Ugh,” the supervisor said, shaking her head. “Soulless.”

After we said our goodbyes, I walked the four blocks to Hahn’s Moby Dick, which was built in 1991. She wasn’t wrong. The exterior is a bunch of charmless windows going up and up. The lobby, with its collection of elevators, scowling security guards and small glass turnstiles, is cold and anodyne. No amount of bureaucratic lipstick can pretty up this political pig.

Maybe Hahn was right, I thought as I headed back to Nate’s Lot. Then I ran into Miguel Santana, president of the California Community Foundation and a longtime Molina confidante.

I know few people who care about L.A. history and responsible leadership as much as he does. What does he think about the county abandoning the Hall of Administration?

“Great!” he said, barely breaking his stride. “I’m all for it. Gloria always wanted to knock it down and turn it into more park.”

Good luck with your fight, Supervisor Hahn: You’re going to need it.

Politics

What to know about race for speaker of the House

Published

15 hours ago

January 2, 2025

Press Room

What to know about race for speaker of the House

The House of Representatives will soon vote for a speaker of the House to lead the chamber for the next two years under the incoming Republican administration.

The previous race for the top House post was plagued by infighting among the GOP, who have been unable to easily find consensus on a speaker candidate in recent years. Former Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was ousted as speaker by his Republican colleagues in October 2023, and it took lawmakers several weeks to finally elect their next leader: Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La.

Johnson is running to retain his position in the next Congress but has not yet received support from all of his Republican colleagues. The 2025 vote carries particularly intense pressure as the House must agree on and elect a speaker in order to certify President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory just days later.

When will the House speaker vote take place?

The House is scheduled to vote on Friday, Jan. 3, 2025, at noon, as dictated by the Constitution.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson is running for speaker of the 119th Congress. (Valerie Plesch)

A speaker must be elected before the 119th Congress can be sworn in.

Who is running?

Republicans have the majority in the House for the 119th Congress, so they are in charge of choosing a speaker.

Current House Speaker Mike Johnson is running again as head of the chamber. At this point, no other candidates have thrown their hat into the ring, but in past years, alternatives have been floated during the day of the vote.

How many votes does a candidate need to win?

Republicans currently hold a slim, four-seat majority in the chamber with 219 seats compared to the Democrats’ 215.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy swears in the officers of the House of Representatives at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 7, 2023. (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times)

The GOP majority is to dwindle even further when two of Trump’s Cabinet picks, Reps. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., and Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., assume their roles pending Senate confirmation, which is expected to take place several weeks after the speaker vote.

A candidate for speaker must receive an outright majority to win. Given the number of seats held by the GOP, a Republican candidate would need 218 votes if all 434 members vote.

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Which Republicans have not committed to supporting Johnson?

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., recently told reporters he won’t vote for Johnson for speaker.

Another GOP member suggested that he has not yet committed to voting for Johnson: “Right now, I think that Mike has done an admirable job under tough conditions, but I’m going to keep my options open. I want to have a conversation with Mike,” Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., told Fox Business’ “Mornings with Maria.”

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., recently told reporters he won’t vote for Rep. Mike Johnson as House speaker. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call/File)

House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., recently said Democrats won’t bail out Johnson if he does not receive enough GOP votes.

How could the recent government funding bill affect the vote?

Johnson introduced a government funding bill in early December, but the first proposal failed before it even reached the House floor after opposition from Republican lawmakers and outside Trump allies Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

A second government funding bill was brought to the House floor, but bipartisan lawmakers voted against the legislation. Johnson introduced a third package, but many of his GOP colleagues didn’t support it. While 34 Republicans voted against Johnson’s bill, it passed in the House with unanimous Democrat support.

With more than two dozen Republicans breaking with Johnson on the government funding fight, he could face potential pushback against his speaker re-election efforts. Anywhere from four to 10 Republicans could oppose Johnson in the speaker’s race, Fox News’ Chad Pergram previously reported.

Could the House race affect the certification of the election?

The vote for speaker will take place on Friday, just three days before Congress is scheduled to certify the results of the Electoral College for Trump.

President-elect Donald Trump is endorsing Rep. Mike Johnson for speaker of the House. (Andrew Harnik)

The House cannot proceed with any official business, such as counting the presidential election votes for Trump, until a speaker is elected and the next Congress is sworn in. In January 2023, it took House Republicans four days and 15 ballots to elect a speaker.

Trump announced he would back Johnson for the position, a pivotal endorsement that could help determine the Louisiana Republican’s chances come Friday’s vote.

“The American people need IMMEDIATE relief from all of the destructive policies of the last Administration. Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard working, religious man. He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement. MAGA!!!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Monday.

Fox News’ Chad Pergram contributed to this report.

Aubrie Spady is a Writer for Fox News Digital.