ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the factors that traditionally have limited Latino influence in national politics. It offers a narrative of the course of the 1988 presidential primaries and general election to examine how structural and demographic characteristics of the Latino community influenced the outcome of the 1988 presidential election. The chapter examines how the same set of demographic and structural factors served both to raise expectations for Latino influence and to diminish the community’s impact in November. No new Latinos won election to national office and the promise of playing a crucial role in the national election went unfulfilled for another election cycle. Latino support for Democratic congressional candidates and identification with the Democratic party increased slightly after a dip in the 1984 elections. Latino leaders organized to develop national agendas. Republican Latinos, like most Republicans living outside Iowa, New Hampshire, and the South, were marginal to the process.
