Latino population boom will have 2012 election echoes

Voters in Nevada, Virginia, and North Carolina will be big players

By Tom Curry
National affairs writer

msnbc.com msnbc.com
updated 2 hours 35 minutes ago 2011-03-24T19:48:47

The potential clout of Latino voters has become as familiar a story line as the gender gap. But what might make 2012 different is the edge Latinos could give President Barack Obama and the Democrats in battleground states which aren’t thought of as immigration portals or left-leaning strongholds.

The 2010 Census revealed that in the past decade the adult Latino population has nearly doubled in Nevada, Virginia, and North Carolina. Also, it's increased by 60 percent or more in two Midwestern battleground states, Indiana and Ohio.

Obama won all five of those states in 2008 — two of them by very narrow margins — and they are likely to be decisive in next year’s balloting.

“What the Census figures suggest is that the road to White House in 2012 may well go through the Hispanic communityâ€