On Monday, American actress of Mexican origins Eva Longoria launched an initiative with the purpose of promoting Hispanic candidates for the upcoming legislative elections in Novemeber.
The Latino Victory Project (LVP), defined as a nonpartisan association, will initially promote seven candidates during the upcoming legislative elections, all of them Latino Democrats which will increase the influence of the Latino community in the White House, reported USA Today.
During an act in the Washington National Press Club, the Texan artist met with Hispanic politicians of the state like Democrat legislator Joaquín Castro and Senator Leticia Van de Putte, among others, to formally present this new project which will support Florida's Joe García; Pete Gallegos of Texas, Raúl Ruíz of California and local politicians Amanda Rentería for the California legislature and Lucy Flores for the Nevada state assembly.
In the United States, Hispanics comprise 17% of the population and this figure is expected to keep growing every year. Despite these numbers, in the country only two Governors are of Hispanic origins: Susana Martínez in New México and Brian Sandoval in Nevada, both of them Republicans.
This trend extends also to legislators, where only three Senators are of Hispanic origins (Republican Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas and Democrat Senator Robert Menéndez of New Jersey), while the House of Representatives has 25 Hispanic members, according to the quoted newspaper.
For the former star of "Desperate Housewives", these figures "are not representative of the current American landscape," and the initiative introduced on Monday will fight for more Latino voters to vote in the upcoming elections.
The 39-year-old actress reminded that in the 2012 elections almost 11 million Hispanics voted, but another 12 million elegible Latinos decided not to vote and its expected that in 2014 the political participation of this group will be even lower, according to NBC.