Las Vegas Marisol
 | |
| Era | The 2000s |
|---|---|
| Age | 20-27 |
| Home | North Las Vegas, NV |
| Demographic | young Latina, hotel work, union |
| Lean | Lean Democrat |
| Race | hispanic |
| Predecessor | East LA Jazmín |
| Successor | Vegas Danny |
Marisol is a Mexican-born hotel housekeeper in her twenties on the Las Vegas Strip, and her vote is shaped by her labour union rather than her Catholic parish. The union delivers her to the Democrats.
Who they stand for
The Culinary Workers Union, Local 226, had about sixty thousand members around the Las Vegas Strip, most of them Latino women, and ran Nevada's most effective turnout operation. The union's health fund provided most of these families' only health insurance. After the September 11 attacks, the Strip laid off thousands of workers within weeks, showing Marisol that a war fought elsewhere can cost a hotel worker her shift in Nevada. Nevada's economy then boomed and collapsed harder than any other state's, holding the country's highest foreclosure rate from 2007 into 2011, on loans written for workers such as housekeepers. The union endorsed Obama in the 2008 caucus, though Clinton still carried the Strip's precincts. In 2010 the union's turnout and the Latino vote saved Senator Harry Reid from Sharron Angle. The DREAM Act failed in the Senate in December 2010. Marisol's parents gained legal status through the 1986 amnesty.
In the lineage of personas, this voting bloc is Democratic for two reasons: loyalty to the union, and the memory of California's Proposition 187. Marisol is the last generation for whom both reasons hold. Her successor keeps the union card, but does not feel the same loyalty to the party.
Playing to them
Marisol's vote runs through her shop steward. A presidential candidate endorsed by the Culinary Workers Union already has her support; one without that endorsement must reach her instead through her health plan and her paycheck. She responds well to protection of the union health fund, a higher minimum wage, legal status for relatives such as her cousins, the DREAM Act, mortgage relief, and keeping Social Security intact for her mother. She will not forgive immigration raids at a workplace, an unexplained layoff, or being treated as if she does not matter. Her Catholic views on abortion and marriage cost a Democrat nothing and gain a Republican nothing. A Republican can reach her only through wages and immigration policy, as Bush's guest-worker proposal did.
Winning Marisol's support costs the cast's immigration restrictionists, such as Fox News Phyllis, Abilene Ray and Jasper Faye, and its anti-union voters, such as Startup Seth and Little Saigon Tuan, whose nail salons pay new immigrant workers less than her union allows. Drywall Josh blames her cousins for depressing his own wage rate. Mesa Ruben shares her Mexican origin, but where Marisol votes on loyalty to her union, he votes on whether he is treated with respect.
Where they live
The five states where Las Vegas Marisol makes up the largest share of the electorate in the 2000s:
- New Mexico
- California
- Texas
- Arizona
- Nevada
Lineage
East LA Jazmín → Las Vegas Marisol → Vegas Danny
Young Latino service workers in union jobs. Jazmín and Marisol vote Democrat for two reasons: the union tells them to, and they remember Proposition 187 as an attack on their families. Danny has the same union job and neither reason. He was too young for 187, and he does not think the union has done anything for him. So he keeps the union card, feels no loyalty to the Democrats, and votes on tips, rent and the price of gas. A loyal vote becomes a swing vote in one generation because the reasons for the loyalty were not passed down. The union job and the memory of 187 define the line, not sex.