by John Reid

Virginia has often been a state which achieves political history. In 1990, Douglas Wilder became the first Black man to serve as governor of a U.S. state since the Reconstruction era. This past November Delegate Don Scott became the first Black Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates. In addition, there was the largest class of women of color to the General Assembly as now 25 Black and Brown women will hold seats in the House of Delegates and State Senate – a 66% increase compared to the previous four years.

This was largely due to the mobilization efforts led by Care In Action, the nonpartisan group which focuses on championing the causes of domestic workers. On a local level, it was due to engaging Latino voters in Prince William County which led to these results. Recently, the PW Perspective spoke with Yanet Limon-Amado, Virginia State Director, about how Care In Action’s efforts expanded voter participation in this past election.

“We ran an extensive program at the beginning of March until the election,” she said. “We had a bilingual team, and we had full bilingual flyers, which focused on language accessibility. In Richmond, we had an English-speaking team who would go door-to-door. We made 25,000 direct contact and conversations within Richmond and Prince William County.”

Limon-Amado stated when they reached out to voters, an interesting trend developed.

“We saw a trend in the primaries and 48% of the voters we contacted, 75% of them did not vote in the last election,” she said. “It allowed us to play a pivotal role. Care In Action made an endorsement for (Delegate) Elizabeth Guzman in SD-29, and this allowed us to single handedly make SD-29 a very competitive race, because of our early involvement.”

“It allowed us to see those women of color and low-capacity voters do turn out. If they vote in a primary, they will vote in a congressional district race, because of our efforts.”

She talked about the key issues which her team received in response from voters in the area.

“We had conversations with our voters, and 20% of them mentioned safety as their top concern. Especially in Prince William, where some of the neighborhoods that had experienced high gun violence, voters shared their concerns as to why Prince William County needs to have better protections.”

She also discussed how there were additional issues on the minds of voters. “Many of them mentioned jobs and the economy. 50% of the voters expressed their concerns about health care as being the top priority as well as education.”

Limon-Amado also discussed the issues undocumented workers face, as she reflects on the challenges her own parents had to experience.

“In regard to health care, Virginia does not have the tools and resources to help undocumented workers and their families,” she said. “One of the things we were talking with communities is we can’t just sign up for Medicare and so that means you have workers having numerous amounts of bills and juggling two or three jobs.”

“You have some families who won’t even go to the hospital because they don’t want to accrue the high costs, or they don’t have a doctor who speaks their same language, or they don’t know how to navigate the system,” she continued. “My dad is still trying to pay a medical bill from approximately 10 years ago, and now you have me as the child of undocumented immigrants having to elevate that for them because it’s exhausting.”

“We had a direction to help undocumented women who are pregnant, and now we are focusing on helping undocumented children to get access to medical care. Those are the steps we need to take on the state level. If we leave it up to the hospitals, it’s only a band aid.”

She talked about how supporting candidates who have policies to help undocumented workers will be a priority in the upcoming election. “We need a law which provides access to health care. We are making sure our legislators aware, and we see the trends when it comes to Latino voters. We are going to see in 2024, 2025 that undocumented children will become first time voters, and they are going to vote based on what they are seeing happening to their parents. The policies that affect the families, will also affect the voters.”

Although Care In Action saw the fruits of their labor in the election results, they plan on continuing their efforts to reach voters and prevent the spread of misinformation.

“Care In Action programs will continue to engage with women of color and low-capacity voters by going door-to-door knocking and by sending texts. We are the only ones who are running a bilingual program, and it will allow us to inform them there is an election every year,” she said.

She also calls for more events to allow Latino voters to meet with candidates in person.

“We also need grassroot events and feel that they’re welcome and have their issues heard.”

However, Limon-Amado also believes more can be done to help organizations to reach Latino voters.

“We need candidates that are running in a diverse district into other languages. We are seeing in Care In Action this is not happening, so it leads to misinformation. We make sure they have accessibility access through our website, flyers, and partnering with key organizations like CASA to ensure they have the correct information.”

She reflected on what it means to see these voters go to the polls for the first time, and what they will be voting for.

“As a DACA recipient, I can’t vote, but I have such a privileged position where I can sit across the table and meet with leaders who tend to overlook Latino voters and undocumented workers,” she said. “For me, having the privilege to share my story and advocacy, it really allows me to encourage and engage even more of my family.”

“My sister will be a first-time voter and the question she always asks is, “What do you need?” because she will vote according to what they need. For example, she will probably vote for someone who is pro-labor because of wage theft.”

“In Virginia, we really need someone who leans into outreach to Latino voters, and we need to give them that opportunity.”

Care In Action has developed a strategy for the upcoming year, and Limon-Amado discussed its intended goals.

“For Care In Action, we have been building our program, and by 2024, 2025 we have a fully built program that identifies Spanish speaking voters. Care In Action is actually developing a targeted strategy to reach Latino voters, and it is crucial to democracy.”

To find out more about Care In Action, visit their website.