Pop quiz: What demographic trait do millions of unmarried women, adults under 30 and people of color have in common? You might guess it’s their relative lack of power and influence. In fact it’s exactly the opposite – potentially. This group, known as the Rising American Electorate (RAE), could prove to be the most powerful voting bloc in the country if the majority goes to the polls.
Consider the numbers: The RAE has accounted for 81 percent of the growth in the U.S. population from 2000 – 2010 and a spectacular 95 percent between 2008 and 2010. The population of unmarried women and Latinos in the country has grown by 8 million over that decade. These groups are the most under-represented in the electorate and the least represented in elected office. But they are steadily becoming the national majority, and their representation in office and at the polls is going to change.
Past experience has shown that a sure way to get them to the polls is to explain the importance of voting in terms of “reproductive justice;” the idea that all women and men must have the resources and opportunity they need to plan their own families and raise and educate their children in safe environments. We have seen the RAE rise before, as it did in Albuquerque, NM in 2013 when a coalition of reproductive justice organizations helped mobilize an unprecedented number of young women, young men and people of color to defeat a referendum that would have banned 20-week abortions.
The power of these voters to drive the outcome of elections is undeniable, and we can mobilize them around issues that affect their everyday lives: How can a mother with toddlers raise healthy children when she makes minimum wage and has to make the choice between buying healthy foods or paying her rent? How can an immigrant family feel safe and be healthy when the family may be torn apart by deportation?
At Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, the great majority of our patients throughout mid-California and northern Nevada are solidly in the RAE: Ninety percent are women, and more than one-third are Latino. Nearly 85 percent are between the ages of 18-29. We have a unique connection with these RAE voters, and we are giving them the opportunity while they visit PPMM health centers to register to vote. We want to make the voter-registration process and learning about civic engagement part of our patient-experience.
Building the power of the RAE to have a real voice in the electoral system is a major step toward achieving reproductive justice because it puts the communities most affected by these inequities at the heart of changing them.
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Lupe Rodriguez is Public Affairs Director at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte and chair of the Santa Clara County Commission on the Status of Women
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