NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — Hispanics accounted for 41 percent of Arkansas’ population growth over the past decade, according to 2010 census figures.
And most of Arkansas’ Hispanics live in the 3rd Congressional District.
The Hispanic population of the 12 counties that currently make up the 3rd District more than doubled over the past decade from 42,296 to 97,929.
Hispanics now account for 11.9 percent of the 3rd District’s residents. That percentage could increase after the Legislature redraws congressional district lines this spring because the Hispanicpopulation is concentrated in the district’s largest cities, which will likely remain in the 3rd District as rural precincts are moved to other districts.
The 3rd District’s Hispanic population is approaching a critical mass of political clout, said a political science professor at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
“Fourteen percent would definitely be a solid margin for swaying election results, all else being equal,” said Rafael Jimeno, the Diane D. Blair professor of Latino studies.
Arkansas has four congressional districts. The 3rd District has 2.5 times thenumber of Hispanics as any other congressional district in Arkansas, according to U.S. Census data released Feb. 10.
Congressman Steve Womack, a Republican from Rogers, said the 11.9 percent may not represent a voting block of that size. Womack said the census counted Hispanic residents, not just those who are U.S. citizens.
“In that case, I think you have to discount the political power that goes with that percentage because it’s very possible ... that a number of that 12 percent may not be U.S. citizens, and if they’re not U.S. citizens, they don’t vote,” said Womack, who took office Jan. 3 after being mayor of Rogers for 12 years. “A lot of people want to suggest that because you have a certain percentage of an ethnic minority in your voting district, that automatically correlates to some kindof voting power.”
Jimeno agreed that citizenship is a factor that could make the Hispanic voting block smaller than 11.9 percent.
“When it comes to the Latino population, both citizenship status and mobilization will have a huge impact,” he said.
Jimeno said many Hispanics who are eligible for U.S. citizenship don’t apply, often because they plan to return to their home country. Also, political parties have been slow to court Hispanic voters, he said.
“Latinos do tend to vote across party lines,” Jimeno said, “so it is a mistake for either party to assume that contact is superfluous.”
John Eves of Bentonville, state chairman for the Republican National Hispanic Assembly, said Hispanic voters have been neglected by both parties on a national level. He said his group’s Arkansas chapter was formed two years ago to address the issue.
“I think we’re trying,” he said of his group, which has about 50 members. “I don’t know if we’re doing any better than nationally, but it’s definitely a focus for the Republican Party here in Arkansas. We still have no state level or higher Hispanics that have been elected.”
Eves said Hispanics will probably seek school board positions in Arkansas first and legislative seats later.
“To engage all groups is important for the Republican Party,” said Eves. “We must be a party of inclusion. Some people say we’re going to reach out to Hispanics. No we’re not. We’re going to include them. How do you do that? That’s the challenge. How do you get Hispanics engaged?”
Candace Martin, a spokesman for the Arkansas Democratic Party, said the organization is trying to recruit any potential Democrats, regardless of ethnicity.
“We’re going to be working with people across the state, in all counties in Arkansas to recruit new Democrats and excite and invigorate the ones we have,” she said.
Andres Chao, the Mexican consul for Arkansas, said the state has primarily an immigrant population of Hispanics now, but that will change as children are born in the United States and grow up here.
“We don’t have here three or four generations of Mexican citizens,” Chao said. “This is a new migrant generation. Most of the Mexican children living here in the U.S. are American citizens. ... The kids are more American than Mexican.”
As time goes by, the Hispanic population will continue to grow in the U.S., Chao said. Hispanic Americans will have a cultural allegiance to their home country and the U.S., but their vote will count here, he said.
“It is just a matter of time,” Chao said. “In some years, we’ll see a Latino running for an important seat in the Congress or the Senate.”
That’s likely to happen first in the 3rd Congressional District because of its larger population of Hispanics, Chao said.
Womack said an increase in Hispanics in the 3rd District won’t prompt him to change the way he campaigns or does his job.
Womack has a reputation for being tough on illegal immigration. He said that’s because he follows the letter of the law, not because he has any sort of racial agenda. Womack was the first mayor in Arkansas to send his city’spolice officers for federal 287(g) training. The program trains state and local law enforcement officers to also serve as U.S. immigration agents in the field or at jails. Six Rogers officers completed the five-week training program in 2007.
“It doesn’t change a thing about what I do,” Womack said. “I don’t represent one city, one demographic group, one gender. I represent the entire 3rd District. I realize my district is made up of Latinos, Asians, Marshallese and many others. I don’t make decisions based on what’s best for a certain demographic or ethnic group. I simply don’t operate that way.”
“There are a lot of good, outstanding, hard-working citizens in the Latino community whose vote carries a lot of weight with me,” he said. “They need to have somebody represent them, and I do just as strongly for them as I doany other ethnicity. They are part of my district, and they deserve to have a voice.”
The 3rd District’s Hispanic percentage could increase after redistricting this spring. The 3rd District must shed about 93,584 residents to be similar in size with the other three districts. That means the 3rd District will shrink geographically. Most of the counties and precincts that legislators are considering moving from the 3rd District to other districts are rural and have a small percentage of Hispanic residents.
The 3rd District’s Hispanic population is concentrated in cities: 24,692 in Springdale, 17,619 in Rogers, 14,190 in Fort Smith, 4,725 in Fayetteville and 3,074 in Bentonville, according to the new U.S. Census Bureau data.
In all of Marion County, which may be cut from the 3rd Congressional District and given to the 1st District, there are only 287 Hispanics. In Boone County, which also could go from the 3rd to the 1st District, there are 674 Hispanics.
On the 3rd District’s south side, Franklin County has 371 Hispanics and Johnson county has 3,094. Pope County, the 3rd District’s southeast corner, has 4,168 Hispanics.
During redistricting after the 2000 census, the 3rd District lost Baxter, Logan, Polkand Scott counties to other districts.
Demographically, Arkansas’ 3rd Congressional District doesn’t look much like the state’s other three districts.
Besides the largest Hispanic population, the 3rd District has three times as many American Indians as the next closest district and 13 times as many Pacific islanders. The 3rd District has almost twice as many Asians as the next closest district.
The 3rd District, however, has only a fraction of the number of black residents as any other district. The 3rd District has 20,084 black residents, which is about 18 percent of the number for the next closest district, the 1st Congressional District, which has 114,272.
The number of Hispanics in all of Arkansas also doubled over the past decade, from 86,866 in 2000 to 186,050 in 2010. The Hispanic population went from 3.2 percent of Arkansas’ population in 2000 to 6.4 percent in 2010. Arkansas had a total population of 2.92 million last year.
Arkansas isn’t the onlystate that’s changing demographically. It’s neighbor to the west, Oklahoma, for the first time has more Hispanics than American Indians.
According to the census figures, the number of Hispanics in Oklahoma increased by 85.2 percent from 179,304 in 2000 to 332,007 in 2010. Hispanics now account for 8.9 percent of Oklahoma’s 3.75 million residents, compared to 8.6 percent for American Indians. Oklahoma had 321,687 American Indians in 2010, according to the census data.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 17 on 02/20/2011