This release was issued by our c4 partner organization, OneAmerica Votes.

SEATTLE—The results of Tuesday’s election and incoming data about voter demographics demonstrate the growing political power of working-class immigrant communities, OneAmerica Votes said today. This is particularly true in Yakima’s 14th Legislative District, which is majority-Latino and just elected the district’s first democratic representatives in 36 years. 

The midterms also revealed the impact of immigrant-led voter outreach and necessity of voter protection efforts from OneAmerica Votes and many other organizations. 

Early data shows an increase in votes from immigrant communities. Initial analysis from the Washington Community Alliance Data Hub shows that 70% of new voters in the 14th Legislative District were Latino (5,300 votes). Nearly 40% of all 2026 voters (8,085) in the district did not vote in the 2022 midterm. 

Latinos are a rapidly growing portion of Washington’s electorate, and currently account for 9.2% of Washington’s eligible voters, making them the state’s second-largest group. 

“There is no denying the organizing and political power of Washington’s immigrant communities,” said Roxana Norouzi, executive director of OneAmerica Votes. “After over a decade of year-round organizing In Yakima’s newly majority-Latino 14th Legislative District by community organizations like OneAmerica Votes and our partners, we are seeing so many new voters come into their power to vote for issues and candidates who represent them and their interests.” 

OneAmerica Votes demonstrated the impact of long-term, in-language (English and Spanish) outreach to voters who are not traditionally reached through electoral campaigns, including new American Voters and BIPOC voters. Through their voter outreach program, they reached out to an estimated 11,600 voters and had 1,606 meaningful conversations with voters – primarily in Yakima and Franklin counties. Together, with other community partners, they supported radio and billboard ads in Spanish to amplify and reach thousands more voters in LD14. Spanish-speaking voters are often neglected in election outreach because they are considered to be a low likelihood to vote. 

OneAmerica Votes, its partner organization OneAmerica, and other advocates have worked for years to lay the legal and civic groundwork to make sure the votes of immigrant citizens are counted.  

The 14th Legislative District is now majority Native and Latino voters, due to a 2021 lawsuit by OneAmerica demonstrating that Yakima County’s voting system had been disenfranchising Latino voters.  

Less than a week before the midterm, OneAmerica Votes and two other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over their unlawful attempt to force Washington election officials to set aside the ballots of hundreds of registered voters based on unfounded claims of “noncitizen voting.” OneAmerica had previously warned that increased forceful ICE activity across the state was part of a coordinated strategy to intimidate immigrant communities from voting. 

“This year’s election results show that our country is rejecting authoritarianism and racialized fearmongering and embracing the possibility of becoming a true multiracial democracy,” Norouzi said. “Voters across the country clearly rejected Trumps’ anti-immigrant agenda. And here in Washington, we saw the rejection of I-645 and support for a wave of progressive candidates. Working people who share interests across lines of race and national origin overwhelmingly voted to fix our upside-down tax code and make Washington more livable for everyone. We will now work at the local, state, and federal level to transform this week’s election results into a mandate for delivering real change for immigrants and working people.”