Election Day: Will Cultural Pride Get Latinos To Vote?

*So much about today’s election has been framed as a referendum on Barack Obama. In many tight races Latino voters have become a focus of attention, and Latino vote advocates have changed their tacl from Obama to cultural pride. VL

By Suzanne Gamboa, NBC News

WASHINGTON — This year’s midterm election campaigns kicked into high gear just after President Barack Obama put plans for taking executive action on immigration reform on hold, following Republican inaction on legislation.

Advocates such as Ben Monterroso, executive director of Mi Familia Vota, knew the president’s delay would make getting out the Latino vote tougher, but was uncertain how far it would sway Latinos from their demonstrated preference for the Democratic party.

Fast forward to Election Day and Latino advocacy groups are feeling better about turnout as many key races are near deadlocked and as they have seen accelerated momentum in get out the vote efforts.

They fought the “Latinos are angry at Democrats over immigration” narrative by making voting an issue of cultural pride, of keeping and building clout and about making immigration reform more permanent by backing reform-friendly candidates.

Tuesday will determine how they did.

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[Photo by The White House/Flickr]