For most Americans today, that principle is expressed most directly at the ballot box. But the right to vote, and the ability of communities to translate votes into meaningful representation, has never been guaranteed without struggle.

The promise outlined by Thomas Jefferson in 1776 took generations to broaden. It required war, constitutional amendments, civil rights organizing and continuing public pressure to extend voting rights beyond the narrow group originally allowed to participate. Women, communities of color and immigrants have long understood that political rights were not freely handed down; they were won, protected and, at times, reclaimed.

That history matters now because voting rights are facing new threats. In Washington, proposals continue to move forward that could make voting more difficult. The U.S. Supreme Court is also weighing questions that could affect how ballots are submitted and counted. In April, the court dealt a serious setback to the federal Voting Rights Act, weakening protections that have been especially important for Latino and Black voters.

California is not immune from these debates. A proposed proof-of-citizenship voting requirement has qualified for the November ballot, placing the state in the middle of a national fight over access to elections.

California’s own history shows why vigilance is necessary. For decades, women were barred from voting, Chinese immigrants were excluded from full civic participation, and the state used poll taxes and English literacy requirements to keep many residents of color from the ballot box.

The state has also made major progress. California is widely viewed as a leader in expanding voter access, and more women and people of color now serve in public office than in previous generations.

A major part of that progress came through the California Voting Rights Act. Over the past 20 years, the law has pushed more than 600 local governments away from at-large elections and toward district-based systems intended to better reflect the communities they serve.

Civil rights attorney Joaquin Avila, who helped shape the law, argued that voting rights must be measured not only by whether people can cast ballots, but also by whether communities have a fair chance to elect candidates who represent them. The state law helped increase Latino political participation and representation, leading in many places to government decisions more closely aligned with the needs of working families.

Still, the California Voting Rights Act does not address every problem. It does not stop discriminatory district maps before they are adopted. In some jurisdictions, voting lines can still be drawn in ways that weaken the influence of Latino communities. With federal protections diminished, California can no longer assume Washington will provide a reliable safeguard.

Advocates are now calling for the state to strengthen and update its voting rights laws. The California Democracy Partnership, a coalition focused on election protections, is seeking changes that would expand language access for voters, prevent discriminatory election changes before they take effect and give residents stronger tools to challenge maps that dilute their political voice.

California once helped lead the country in voting rights policy, and other states have since adopted protections that go further in some areas. At a time when confidence in democratic institutions is under strain, supporters argue the state has a responsibility to act again.

The idea of government by the people does not sustain itself automatically. It depends on each generation choosing to protect and expand participation. Strengthening California’s voting rights laws would be one way to honor the country’s founding promise and help ensure that all communities have a meaningful voice in their government.

Original source: CalMatters

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“I swear they were socialists when they were, like, 20,” the Acton-based state senator said of her relatives while we ate lunch at a restaurant in Santa Ana. “But then [one of them] sent me a photo of voting for [Donald] Trump. I was like, ‘What is going on here? I never thought I would see this day.’”

To Valladares’ right was fellow GOP Latina Kate Sanchez, an Assembly member whose district stretches from Mission Viejo to Temecula.

“He can’t afford to buy a house and is frustrated,” Valladares continued about her family member, whom she declined to identify because he’s not publicly out as a Trump voter. “And I think a lot of Latino voters felt the same way. So I think it’s a huge opening for Republicans in the state, and I think it’s the beginning of a shift that I want to make sure we’re jumping on.”

The two are founders and co-chairs of the new California Hispanic Legislative Caucus, the latest attempt at an official group for Latino Republicans in the statehouse. It formed as a response to the 51-year-old Latino Legislative Caucus, a Sacramento powerhouse that has never admitted GOP members.

“When you’re not welcome at the table, you learn to build your own,” said Sanchez, 36. She’s quieter than Valladares and reels off political cliches that nevertheless land with conviction. “So I think it was a blessing. When we were reelected [last year], we were like, ‘The timing is now, and we’re doing it.’”

Although Kamala Harris handily won the state, some of Trump’s biggest gains over his 2020 run were in Latino-heavy counties in the Central Valley and L.A. County cities like Downey and Huntington Park. Valladares, who previously served as an Assembly member, won an open Senate seat. Meanwhile, Jeff Gonzalez and Leticia Castillo scored upsets in their Inland Empire Assembly races against Latino Democrats backed by the area’s long-standing political machine.

Those wins pushed the number of Latino GOP legislators in Sacramento to nine, more than doubling the previous high of four, set two years ago. Latinos now make up nearly a third of Sacramento GOP legislators — a once-unthinkable scenario in a state where the party turned off Latino voters for a generation by pursuing a slew of xenophobic measures in the 1990s. It’s a legacy that Sanchez and Valladares freely acknowledge that opponents will throw at them.

“I think the Republican Party has probably missed a lot of those opportunities” in the past, said Sanchez, as Valladares nodded in agreement. “But we’re going to be doing a great job.”

“I think we’ve done a lot of work in the last decade,” added Valladares, 44, who is more plainspoken and sharper-tongued than her co-chair. “And those seeds that we planted have now grown.”

The Hispanic GOP caucus is forming at a time when Democrats still hold a supermajority in both of the state’s legislative chambers, while the Republican Party nationally has soured on anything with even a hint of multiculturalism. Nevertheless, the two are confident they’re onto something.

“Sacramento doesn’t know how to read the room,” Valladares said. “My race was supposed to have been super close. I was preparing to win by five votes, not five points.”

“I want to say the elephant in the room,” Sanchez added. Trump had been a “tough issue” with Latino voters — but “not so much anymore.”

Of the two, Sanchez had the more conventional conservative upbringing, growing up in Rancho Santa Margarita and Mission Viejo before attending a small Catholic college in Rhode Island.

After working at a conservative think tank and as a staffer for Republican U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, Sanchez ran for an Assembly seat in 2022 against then-Temecula Mayor Matt Rahn. He finished first in the primary as the establishment favorite and had a sizeable cash advantage going into the general election.

“I didn’t quite fit the mold of what the party expected me to be like and look like,” Sanchez, who is of Italian and Mexican descent, said before smiling. “It’s the worst thing to tell a Latina.”

She wore out three pairs of walking shoes to win a wealthy district where Latinos make up 22% of the population, calling her victory a “testament to a need, a momentum and openness to have a Hispanic female” in the seat. In the 2024 election, she crushed her Democratic opponent by 23 percentage points.

Valladares grew up in Sylmar, “the most conservative” member in a working-class family where her father’s Mexican American side leaned to the right while her maternal Puerto Rican relatives were “very progressive.”

Morning drives to Sylmar High with an uncle introduced her to Rush Limbaugh. She didn’t appreciate when a counselor insisted she should register as a Democrat because she was Latina.

“I was represented by Democrats at every level, from city council to county supervisor,” Valladares said. “On Sundays, my park would be closed because of the gangs. I remember a bunch of my friends having kids when I was in 11th grade. So I’m like, ‘If we’re represented by Democrats who are in total power, why is my community still suffering?’”

In an alternative universe, Valladares nevertheless could have been a part of the fabled San Fernando Valley political machine that has placed Latinos from the region at every level of political office for the past 30 years, from school boards to the U.S. Senate seat occupied by Alex Padilla.

Pioneering Valley politician Cindy Montañez helped Valladares with her college entrance essay, starting a friendship that lasted until Montañez’s death in 2023. Valladares also volunteered on the unsuccessful 2001 L.A. City Council race of then-Assemblymember Tony Cárdenas, who later won election to the council and went on to represent the Pacoima area in Congress for 12 years.

She described Cárdenas as a “great person” and felt the 2001 race was a “sad loss.” But her experience on the Democrat’s campaign only solidified her choice to register as a Republican.

“I didn’t feel like they were addressing the economic issues of small-business owners like my dad,” Valladares said. “I feel like I gave in my younger life the Democrat Party every opportunity to convince me that they were supporting me. And they didn’t.”

I asked the two what Latino Democratic lawmakers in California don’t get about the political moment for Latinos right now.

“There’s a hyper-focus on immigration,” said Sanchez, whose first husband was once undocumented. “Hispanics are so much more of the fabric of California than that one issue. And I think it’s a disservice to everybody if all we focus on is that one issue.”

Latino Legislative Caucus members would argue that they’ve worked on behalf of all working-class Californians, I pointed out.

Valladares again brought up her Trumper relative. Last summer, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed an Assembly bill that would have made California residents without papers eligible for a state program that allows first-time home buyers to apply for up for $150,000 in no-interest loans.

“[The relative] was so infuriated” with the bill, the senator said. “He so wants to buy a house. Then this? That is probably what got him to vote for Trump.”

Sanchez and Valladares support Trump’s call to deport whom the latter described as “the worst of the worst” but not a full-scale deportation of all unauthorized immigrants. They want to see immigration reform but argue it’s a federal issue. Besides, they point out, the Latinos they talk to care more about “kitchen table” issues.

It’s a claim supported by years of polls revealing that immigration is of lower importance to Latinos than Democratic lawmakers and immigrant advocacy groups would have the public believe. And enmity against illegal immigration among Latinos in California is higher than it has been in decades.

“It’s their wedge issue. It’s their emotional issue,” Valladares said of Democrats. “And when you don’t have voices that look like us giving an alternate perspective or opinion or policy fix, they dominate it.”

She let a beat pass. “They’re used to owning that space. No more.”

“You said it well!” Sanchez said.

The Hispanic Legislative Caucus has yet to meet, but the two are already planning. Valladares is inviting Latino GOP pioneers to become emeritus members — people like former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado and Rod Pacheco, who became the first Latino Republican elected to Sacramento in over a century when he won his Inland Empire Assembly seat in the 1990s.

Sanchez is outlining a legislative package focusing on what she describes as the “mandate on affordability, security and good education” that she said Latinos voted for in 2024.

The two say they want to allow anyone to join the caucus, regardless of political affiliation. But they also want to help Latino Republicans win local elections and create a bench to ensure that politicians like them remain a presence in Sacramento for years to come, instead of a ridiculed anomaly.

“We are going to champion issues that we know that California Hispanics care about,” Sanchez said when I asked for her concluding message to Latino voters.

Valladares directed her closing thoughts to their frenemies over at the Latino Legislative Caucus.

“Our caucus is here to work on these critical issues on behalf of Californians,” she said. “We’re going to do it with or without you.”

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Tony Hinchcliffe, a comic who called Puerto Rico “garbage” before a packed Trump rally in New York appears to be the catalyst.

“The reason why I supported Donald Trump was because I thought he was the best for the economy in the United States, where many Latinos live, many of us Latinos live, myself included, many immigrants who are suffering because of the economy and him, being a businessman, I thought it was the best move,” Jam said in Spanish, in a video statement posted to his official Instagram page.

“Never in my life did I think that a month later a comedian was going to come to criticize my country and speak badly of my country and therefore, I renounce any support for Donald Trump, and I sidestep any political situation. Respect Puerto Rico, Nicky Jam.”

Representatives for Jam did not immediately respond to the Associated Press’ request for comment.

Puerto Ricans cannot vote in general elections despite being U.S. citizens, but they can exert a powerful influence with relatives on the mainland.

The effects of Hinchcliffe’s remarks are felt on the island and elsewhere: One of the biggest artists on the planet, the Grammy-award winning Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, threw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, shortly afterward.

Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martínez, shared a video to his Instagram account Tuesday detailing the origins of Puerto Rico and its inhabitants’ prominence in politics, sports and entertainment. The caption read: “garbage.”

“We have been fighting since day one of our existence, we are the definition of heart and resistance,” he wrote in Spanish. “Here we stand, here we are, and for those who forget who we are… don’t worry, we proudly remind you.”

Actor Aubrey Plaza addressed the remarks at the WSJ Magazine Innovator Awards on Tuesday night, saying her grandmother, if alive, would respond profanely to Hinchcliffe’s characterization of Puerto Rico.

“I just wanted to very quickly respond to the racist joke that was made at that Trump rally about Puerto Rico, where most of my family is from,” Plaza told attendees. “Thankfully, my sweet abuelita wasn’t here to hear that disgusting remark.”

Ricky Martin, who had previously endorsed Harris, was also offended by the comment and said “that’s what they think of us,” on Instagram.

A representative for Anuel AA, another famous Puerto Rican star who endorsed Trump last month, said he was on tour and unable to comment on Hinchcliffe’s remarks.

Jam, known for songs such as “Travesuras,” “Voy a Beber” and the J Balvin collaboration “X” expressed his support for Trump last month at a rally in Las Vegas, where Trump seemed to mistake him for a woman. “Latin Music superstar Nicky Jam! Do you know Nicky, she’s hot. Where’s Nicky?” he said.

As a result, the Mexican pop-rock band Maná has removed its 2016 song with Nicky Jam, “De pies a cabeza,” from online platforms. “Maná does not work with racists,” the group said in an Instagram post explaining the decision.

Maná is rallying with Harris in Las Vegas on Thursday.

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The Republican presidential nominee and former president is heading to Uniondale, on Long Island, an area that could be key to his party maintaining control of the House. His party is trying to protect 18 Republicans in Democratic-heavy congressional districts that Joe Biden carried in 2020, particularly in coastal New York and California, and going on offense to challenge Democrats elsewhere.

Long Island in particular features one of the most closely watched races, between first-term Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito and Democrat Laura Gillen. D’Esposito is a former New York Police detective who won in 2022 in a district that Biden won by about 15 percentage points in 2020.

Trump posted Tuesday on his Truth Social platform that the GOP has “a real chance of winning” New York “for the first time in many decades.” In that same post, Trump also pledged that he would “get SALT back,” suggesting he would eliminate a cap on state and local tax deductions that were part of tax cut legislation he signed into law in 2017.

The so-called SALT cap has led to bigger tax bills for many residents of New York, New Jersey, California and other high-cost, high-tax states, and is an important campaign issue in those states, particularly among those New York Republicans serving in districts Biden won.

On the Democratic side of the campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to speak at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s 47th Annual Leadership Conference in Washington on Wednesday, and has trips planned later in the week to Michigan and Wisconsin.

Latino voters form a critical bloc in swing states such as Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Speaking on the Nueva Network this week with the personality known as “Chiquibaby,” Harris promoted her proposed tax deductions for new small businesses, her experience prosecuting border cases as California attorney general and her support for offering a “pathway to citizenship for those who have earned it.”

On Tuesday, the vice president sat for an interview in Philadelphia with members of the National Association of Black Journalists. She decried Trump’s rhetoric and said voters should make sure he “can’t have that microphone again.”

Trump is attempting to return to his campaign cadence after Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt as he golfed in Florida. On Tuesday, he traveled to Flint, Michigan, and has not appeared to alter plans for upcoming trips to the nation’s capital and North Carolina later in the week.

His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, is scheduled to hold an event in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Wednesday.

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