—Kerry Hill, B1Daily

Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party bet big on Latino voters in 2024, pouring unprecedented resources into outreach, policy concessions, and cultural pandering, often at the expense of their most loyal base, Black Americans. Yet, in a bitter twist, exit polls revealed a decisive shift: Latinos broke for Republicans in numbers that stunned analysts and handed key swing states to the GOP.

For decades, Democrats treated Latino support as a given, assuming immigration rhetoric and symbolic gestures would suffice. Meanwhile, they sidelined Black voters, who delivered Biden the White House in 2020, by slow-walking police reform, under-delivering on student debt relief, and offering empty platitudes on economic justice. The calculation was clear: prioritize the growing Latino electorate over the “taken-for-granted” Black vote.

But Latinos, a diverse bloc with diverging interests, didn’t reciprocate. Cuban-Americans in Florida rallied behind Republicans over socialism fears. Working-class Mexican-Americans in Texas and Arizona, disillusioned by stagnant wages and inflation, blamed Biden’s economy. Even progressive Latinos in California and New York expressed frustration over the Democrats’ failure to pass immigration reform, despite Biden issuing more executive actions on immigration than any modern president.

The irony? Biden’s team bent over backward for Latino voters: expanded DACA protections, Spanish-language ad blitzes, and even a cringe-worthy tamale faux pas in New Mexico. Yet none of it outweighed kitchen-table concerns, or the GOP’s effective fear-mongering on crime and cultural issues.

Meanwhile, Black voters watched from the sidelines. They turned out in lower numbers, their loyalty eroded by years of neglect. The Democratic Party’s gamble, that Latinos could replace Black support, backfired spectacularly. Now, with a Republican victory sealed, the lesson is clear: taking any community for granted is political suicide.

But for Biden, the sting isn’t just electoral, it’s moral. After sacrificing Black priorities for Latino outreach, he lost both. And Latinos? They moved right, leaving Democrats to wonder: Was it ever really worth it?

—Kerry Hill, B1Daily