Reading, Pennsylvania, which is almost 2,000 miles from the southern border, may not be a city most people think of as being predominantly Hispanic, but sometime after 2000, this city of 95,000 became majority Hispanic, and almost 69% of residents claimed Hispanic origin during the last census.
This community has long voted overwhelmingly for the Democratic Party, but that is beginning to change. In 2020, only 27% of the city voted for former President Donald Trump, but that was 8 points better than Trump’s 2016 total. So even though Trump lost the city by about 70 points, he actually netted 80,000 votes in the city between the two elections.
Democratic strategist Ruy Teixeira thinks the results in Reading are part of a growing trend. In his 2004 book, The Emerging Democratic Majority, Teixeira argued that the growth of the voting Democratic Hispanic population combined with the declining percentage of white voters meant that the Democratic Party would soon have a near lock on elections for years to come.
Now, however, looking at cities like Reading, Teixeira is revising his view. He now claims that Hispanic voters are becoming alienated from a Democratic Party that is “too lax on border security and too focused on racial disparities.”
Reading resident Lydia Torres, who helped Republican Michael Rivera become the first Hispanic elected to the Berks County Board of Commissioners, told the Wall Street Journal, “Democrats care more about kids outside the country than those who live here.”
Angel Figueroa, a Democrat who also supported Rivera’s campaign, added, “By our culture, we overwhelmingly are Catholic. Overwhelmingly, we are pro-life. People by far, and specifically Puerto Ricans, are more in line with Republican values.”
It appears that Democrats are becoming a little too woke for the Hispanics of Reading, Pennsylvania, and it doesn’t look like either Vice President Kamala Harris or Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is the type of candidate who can bring them back.
