Archive for: Sonja Diaz

Missed Opportunity to Deepen Connection With Latino Voters

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A Los Angeles Times op-ed about the Rick Caruso mayoral campaign’s outreach to Latino communities cited Sonja Diaz, executive director of the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute. Running as an outsider, Caruso is courting segments of the Latino vote that include moderate Democrats, independents, Catholics and others, raising the question of whether L.A.’s established political class understands that Latinos have a variety of political viewpoints. “We know Latinos are not a monolith,” Diaz said, “but does the California Democratic Party know the difference between Latinos in Sun Valley, Pacoima, Van Nuys, west of the 110 or east of the 110, Northeast and East L.A.?” Around the country, Republicans have made inroads with Latino voters while Democrats have missed opportunities to build the national profile of top elected leaders, Diaz noted in an Elle profile of Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, the only Latina in the U.S. Senate.

Read the L.A. Times op-ed
Read the Elle article

 

Report Finds Latino Representation Lacking in State Government Appointments

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A new report from the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute (LPPI) offers an in-depth picture of the state of Latino representation across the California governor’s leadership cabinet and influential state governing bodies. Latinos make up 39.1% of the state population but only 18.4% of executive appointees, according to the report. Among all women, Latinas remain the most underrepresented. The report also found a lack of Central and Southern California voices on executive boards and commissions. These influential state governing bodies play a critical role in advising the administration, establishing statewide policy priorities and regulatory standards, and determining the allocation of billions of dollars in public resources. The report noted that Latinos who do serve on these bodies tend to be more recent appointments: 70.7% of Latino appointees were appointed in the last four years, while non-Hispanic white appointees are more likely to be legacy appointments carried over from a previous administration. Policy recommendations outlined in the report include limiting these legacy reappointments and issuing an executive order that sets directives for reaching proportional representation of the state’s diverse constituencies across race and ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation and geographic residence. “Without representation in these bodies, the myriad of policy reforms necessitating a Latino lens evolve into a universal approach that can leave Latinos worse off,” LPPI Executive Director Sonja Diaz told the Sacramento Bee. “Our elected leaders have an obligation to do more to ensure the state’s diverse Latino population is truly represented as architects of state policy and rule-making.”

 

Pivotal Role for Latino Voters in 2022 Midterms

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The Latino electorate played a decisive role in key U.S. Senate races in 2020 and will again be crucial in determining outcomes in the 2022 midterm elections, according to a report published by the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute. The report analyzed the choices of Latinos in 2020 Senate elections in five states where Latino voters were pivotal either because of their large numbers or the part they played in close races: Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, New Mexico and Texas. In all these states, Latino voters in 2020 supported Democratic Senate candidates by wide margins, yet a considerable number — between 2% and 10%, depending on the state — split their ballots between parties when choosing Senate and presidential candidates. These swing voters will likely be a critical segment in this year’s midterm elections, particularly in states like Arizona and Georgia where Senate races are currently considered toss-ups, the report’s authors said. The power of the Latino electorate is growing rapidly, with more than 1 million Latinos coming of voting age each year. Determining the future balance of power in the currently divided Senate and elsewhere will depend heavily on efforts to get out the Latino vote, said the institute’s founding director, Sonja Diaz. “Voting patterns show the critical role Latinos play in pivotal midterm elections, but these votes must be earned,” Diaz said. “Campaigns for House and Senate seats should ensure they are reaching the Latino electorate by addressing the needs of this community and utilizing tailored outreach techniques proven to result in voter mobilization.” — Rodrigo Dominguez-Villegas

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Diaz on De León’s Mayoral Campaign

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Sonja Diaz, director of the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative, spoke to the Los Angeles Times about L.A. City Councilman Kevin de León’s campaign for mayor. De León, who was the first Latino ever to lead the state Senate, is currently running in third place behind front-runners Rick Caruso and Karen Bass. “With his legislative record and working-class immigrant success story, De León would be leading the race if he were spending like Caruso,” Diaz said. “His policy acumen is bar none … whether it’s climate change, pension reform or immigrant rights.” While Caruso has spent nearly $30 million on his campaign so far, De León has spent about $2 million. Despite his limited funding, De León is continuing to fight to be in the two-person general election runoff. To increase his chances, De León’s campaign will be pushing to get a large Latino turnout for the June 7 primary. 

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Inaugural Latino Applied Policy Research Awards Announced Grants from the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative support projects targeting inequities that impact communities of color

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The UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative (LPPI) has awarded a total of $150,000 to six Latino-led applied research projects at UCLA aimed at developing policy solutions to challenges facing Latino communities in California.

The inaugural Latino Applied Policy Research Awards provide yearlong funding for the six research groups, including two all-Latina teams, whose projects will focus on topics such as homelessness, the impact of public art on policy, and the relationship between immigration and educational equity.

The awards also support the training of future Latino academics by giving UCLA students the opportunity to participate in the projects under the tutelage of expert faculty and scholars.

“The Latino Policy and Politics Initiative is investing in our future with these grants,” said Sonja Diaz, founding director of LPPI. “We are not only helping to develop the next generation of researchers, we are pushing the value of applied research as a means to continue driving tailored policies and achieving real-time impacts that lead to increased and sustained meaningful opportunities for Latino communities.”

Over the next year, the six teams of researchers will examine:

  • How a public art exhibition at the U.S.–Mexico border raised public awareness and fueled criticism of federal immigration policy.
  • How immigration enforcement actions affect Latino students’ educational attainment.
  • Why homelessness counts underestimate the number of unhoused Latinos and how this affects the allocation of resources that could help stem the problem.
  • How wildfire and disaster planning policies impact Latino immigrants and Indigenous people.
  • How to strengthen labor and health protections in the sport of boxing.
  • How to build more effective, powerful political coalitions among Latinos and other people of color.

“The projects we are funding focus on the ways in which inequity persists within Latino communities and aim to provide real solutions,” said Silvia González, the initiative’s co-director of research. “We are proud to work with researchers who are pushing the envelope and using their expertise to develop the critical analysis needed to drive better policy on a breadth of issues.”

The Latino Applied Policy Research Awards are made possible by $3 million in ongoing funding from the California Legislature to LPPI to conduct research and develop policy solutions that address inequities that disproportionately impact Latinos and other communities of color.

“While the knowledge produced in academia often remains divorced from policy debates, the insights provided through rigorous scientific inquiry should inform policymaking to reduce inequities that afflict communities of color,” said co-director of research Rodrigo Dominguez-Villegas. “Our applied research grants will act as an essential tool to translate the work of academic institutions into on-the-ground solutions in real-time.”

Full descriptions of each research project can be accessed here.

Much at Stake in State Attorney General’s Race, Diaz Says

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Founding Director of the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative Sonja Diaz was featured in a Los Angeles Times article about the California attorney general’s race. In the June primary, voters will choose from the liberal incumbent, Rob Bonta, who was appointed to the job last year, and four other candidates, all with differing views on crime and criminal justice reform. The election will be held as voters are expressing heightened fears about public safety. Diaz explained that the attorney general’s job expands far beyond crime; the Department of Justice oversees the enforcement of environmental and housing laws and runs a civil rights division. “Crime is part of the job, not all of the job,” Diaz said. “The other part of the job is really defending and upholding not only our state Constitution but California’s values at a really important time in our nation’s history.”

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Diaz on Mobilizing Latino Vote in L.A. Mayor’s Race

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A Los Angeles Times story about a poll showing Karen Bass and Rick Caruso in a dead heat in the L.A. mayor’s race looked to Sonja Diaz, executive director of the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative, for context. If the June 7 primary leads to a contest between U.S. Congresswoman Bass and billionaire developer Caruso, the election would be marked by stark divides of ideology, race and geography. Caruso has already spent millions on television and digital advertising, including on Spanish-language TV and radio stations and on websites such as YouTube. Still, more than half of Latino poll respondents said they didn’t know Bass or Caruso well enough to form an opinion of the candidates. “Latinos are going to be late deciders,” Diaz said. “The fact that they’re undecided, in order to change that, there’s really going to have to be money and tailored messaging.”

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Diaz on New Latino-Majority Districts in California

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Founding Director of the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative Sonja Diaz was featured in a Los Angeles Times column about the role that California Latinos will play in the midterm elections. New congressional maps were drawn based on the results of the 2020 Census, and the number of Latino-majority districts in California increased from 10 to 16. The six new districts with Latino majorities could help Democrats retain control of the House of Representatives in the upcoming elections. However, some experts are concerned that it may take time to mobilize voters in these districts, which are concentrated in the Central Valley and encompass rural and historically disenfranchised communities that may be hard to organize. “Latinos are at the periphery of California politics even though they’re central to the economy and to its future,” Diaz explained. She said that Democrats should seek Latino candidates who can speak to the concerns of Latino communities.

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On the Evolution of Voter Access in California

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Alisa Belinkoff Katz, senior fellow at the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy and associate director of the Los Angeles Initiative, and Sonja Diaz, founding director of the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative, spoke to ABC7 News about the complicated history of voter suppression in California. Despite major strides in voting access, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a report co-authored by Belinkoff Katz found that California voters do not reflect the diversity of its people. She described the origins of the “exclusion of low-income people from the vote,” starting with Chinese immigrants and some Native Americans during the 18th and 19th centuries. Diaz added that some people are still being left out today because of the color of their skin, their class or their ZIP code, as well as redistricting decisions that dilute their voting power. 

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Diaz on Latina’s Nomination to State’s High Court

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Sonja Diaz, executive director of the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative at UCLA Luskin, spoke to media outlets including the Sacramento Bee and Associated Press about the first Latina nominated to serve on the California Supreme Court. Gov. Gavin Newsom said his selection for the open seat, Appeals Court Justice Patricia Guerrero, is a “keen legal mind and well-regarded jurist.” The daughter of Mexican immigrants who grew up in the agricultural Imperial Valley has worked as a federal prosecutor, law firm partner and Superior Court judge, and now sits on the 4th District Court of Appeal. Latinas sit on high courts in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, New York and Texas, Diaz said, but despite the growing influence of the Latino electorate in California, no Latina has yet served in a statewide constitutional office or as U.S. senator. “Despite the important contributions that Latinas make to power California’s economy, they continue to be underrepresented in positions of power,” she said.

Read the Sacramento Bee article
Read the AP article