Bloomberg Línea — Although the Latino or Hispanic population in the United States totals around 62 million and represents more than 19% of the total population, its presence in the House of Representatives and the Senate remains small.
According to the Pew Research Center, in the current legislature there are 46 federal representatives and senators who identify themselves as Latino or Hispanic.
The Black community, according to US Census data, totals 46.8 million, or less than 13% of the country’s total population (including more than 2.4 million people who identify themselves as Latinos or Black Hispanics), while there are 59 African-American representatives and senators in the current legislature, according to the Pew Research Center.
This Tuesday’s elections could usher more Latinos into the House of Representatives, where there are currently 38 representatives of that ethnicity.
According to the National Association of Elected and Appointed Officials of the United States (NALEO), that number could grow to 45, which would be the highest figure ever
Speaking to NBC News, NALEO’s executive director Arturo Vargas said that, to reach that number, 34 federal representatives need to be re-elected and 11 Latinos need to gain seats in districts that are not currently held by members of this minority.
Supporting this projection is the increase in the number of Latino voters who could participate in the election. According to NALEO, there were 30.6 million Latinos eligible to vote in the 2020 election.
For the 2022 midterms, however, the figure is 34.5 million, according to Pew data This means an increase of more than 12.7%, and which shows the significant growth of the ethnicity within the electorate.