Economy and gun safety top concerns for Colorado's Latinos

Latinos make up more than 20% of Colorado's population, now a new survey details their top concerns.

The Colorado Latino Policy Agenda was released Wednesday morning. The economy, inflation and gun safety top the list of concerns.

The survey found half of Latinos in the state say their economic outlook has gotten worse, with a third of them quitting their jobs in the last year because of bad working conditions. 23% of the respondents said they their workload or hours increased without a raise or promotion.

One of the key focuses of the survey is to make sure Latino concerns are top of mind for politicians and organizations.

"Keep in mind, 2021 survey now the 2022, clearly indicates Latinos are struggling economically and they support a wide range of policies to address that," said Dr. Gabriel Sanchez who led the poll for BSP Research. "This the first federal election, at least, that these Latino voters have an opportunity to voice their opinion through the ballot box."

When it comes to gun violence, 83% said they worry their child could be a victim of a mass shooting and want wants policymakers to take more action.

"We have lots of work to still do and I think we make that observation in the report," said Alex Sánchez the President and CEO of Voces Unidas de las Montañas. "Calling on political systems and organizations, officials and candidates to do better, the need to do more investment in Latino outreach."

Voces Unidas de las Montañas is a Latino-created and Latino-led advocacy organization.

Another big concern is climate change and support policies that will move the state toward clean-energy economy with electric vehicles and solar energy. They also would like more taxes spent on public transportation.

They also raised concern about actually having clean water. Beatriz Soto, Director of Protégete for Conservation Colorado said, "Among the noteworthy findings this year is that nearly a third of Latinos do not trust the water quality in their homes – and that figure jumps to 40% of mobile-home residents."

The report shows COVID is struggle a for the Latino community. Almost twice the number of Latinos had someone get coronavirus in 2022 than in 2021. Long-term COVID symptoms are on the rise as well.

In addition, the data showed there is a low level of engagement. The vast majority of survey respondents said no political party had reached out to them. "We have a long ways to go to ensure that we're investing in outreach to Latinas and Latinos. Regardless of party, neither party is doing it said Alex Sanchez. That's with the November elections less than two months away and a lot of votes in play. 

This was a statewide poll of 1,504 Latino registered voters conducted from July 5 to August 5. It is intended for use by lawmakers and other officials in the year ahead.