Cross-racial mobilization played an important role in explaining the Latino turnout for Barack Obama in the 2012 election

In 2012, Latino turnout increased by more than a quarter, despite a fall in overall turnout that election year. The vast majority of this increased vote went to Obama. Why was Obama so successful with Latino voters? In new research, Loren Collingwood finds that a model that goes beyond voter demographics, and takes into account the Obama campaign’s outreach to Latinos and policy stances such as deferred action for undocumented immigrants helps to explain this success. He writes that when taking into account Obama’s ability to tap into the shared racial and ethnic identities of Latinos, voters were up to 70 percent more likely to vote for him because of this engagement.