had felt after that, had felt during an assassination attempt on president reagan, he later became a leading advocate of gun control. the brady bill instituted a mandatory waiting period for purchasing handguns and background checks for buyers. he was awarded the presidential medal of freedom by president bill clinton in the 1996. >> james scott brady. he came to national prominence as a

respected and popular national press secretary for president ronald reagan. cut down by a would be assassin's bullet after less than three months on the job. families and communities all across america are safer today because of james brady's refusal to give up or give in. with an unflagging thumbs up optimism, he has demonstrated the capacity of try you ever over personal hardship and achieved his cherished goals. [applause] had felt it's --

host: up next, a forrum on the effect of the latino vote hosted by --

host: what we would like to do to start off the -- some of the other major themes we'll be work body on but certainly the elections are top of mine at the moment. as we talk about 2014, let's make sure we put this in context about 2010. because when we compare elections, it's only fair to compare a midterm to a midterm. so let's not forget what happened back in 2010's midterm elections where the latino vote had a decisive impact. the democrats are only in control of the senate today because of the elections of these two senators, senator

michael bennett of colorado and senator harry reid of nevada. the latino vote was decisive in these election campaigns. in that election, 6.6 million latinos voted and comprised just over seven percent of the latino vote. also important of the 2010 election were the real significant mile stones that were achieved by latinos in the republican party. the first latino governor of any state was elected in new mexico. first latino governor in nevada. and the number of latinos in the house of representatives more than doubled from three to

seven. let's not forget the impact latinos had in the 2012 election where 11.2 latinos went to the polls. we know that the latino vote had a major impact on the campaigns in some of the swing states. so looking forward to 2014, we are making strides. if you look at this chart following the trajectory of the latino vote. at this time traces closely to the green line. let's keep our eye on that red line. that's the number of latinos who are

eligible to vote. the truth is that, that population continues to grow faster than the population of latinos two actually vote. so the challenge before us is to make sure that we engage latinos as they enter the eh -- eh electlectorate. i of how many latinos will show up to the polls this november, projections were released earlier this year. we're expecting that 7.8 million latinos will vote in november. that's an increase over the 2010

numbers and that we'll make up 3.8 percent of the national share of all voters. so, again, we're making strides. the latino vote is growing. but i'll be honest, for us, it's not growing fast enough. part of our conversation this morning will be about some other initiatives that are being undertaken to also increase the latino electorate. there are some political factors that will shape the latino vote, whether latinos are mobilized to go out and vote, how they vote, and the choices they make. now, immigration certainly is top in the mind of everyone in this room. traditionally and historically, immigration reform has not been the number one

issue for latino voters and that makes sense. if you're a voter, you're a citizen. you're born here or you are a naturalize citizen. but as the issue has continued to be part of the public discourse since 2000 and as more and more latino citizens know personally a latino who is undocumented, the importance of this issue has increased to the point where -- and we'll have a panelist address this, immigration itself has risen to the top of the issues that latino voters care about in elections. so one of the questions will be what does it mean that immigration reform has not yet passed both houses of congress? what will it mean for november 2014. and we'll be talking about that in a couple of minutes. some other things that will be affecting the latino vote include the

situation and the condition of the federal voting rights act. the votes rights act has been a powerful tool since 1965 to make sure that every single american citizen is able to vote free of discrimination. last year, the united states supreme court in shelby versus holder declared section four unconstitutional meaning that section five which required preclearance of any change in election practices by nine states and a number of counties, that, that formula for determining who was subject to preclearance was unconstitutional. so as a result of the shelby decision, texas, alabama, and mississippi have imposed voter id laws that in our view have a discriminatory impact on latinos, african americans, and others. and kansas and arizona are two of the states trying to

strengthen proof of citizenship requirements. so the environment is becoming more challenging to make sure that latinos are able to vote, and motivated to vote. now what is happening in terms of candidates in 2014. we expect that two of the latino governors elected in 2010 have excellent opportunities to be elected in 2014. both governor martinez and governor sandoval. that primary will be september 9th. we'll see if he makes it through the primary and then in the competition for november. there's a number of

latinos running for the number two offices in their states. joe garcia who is the incumbent in colorado is up for election. carlos lopez is now running on the ticket with governor scott. she will be with us later at this conference if not already in the room, lucy flores from nevada. and a former board member here -- in state's across the country. other significant state wide contests that we'll keep an eye on in november include state senator alex

padilla. [applause] >> who is running for california secretary of state. he was a top vote getter in california's primary. and that's as much as i'm going to say for his election. former deputy secretary of state. she herself is running for secretary of state there in rhode island. we hope she makes it. and a former member of the board of directors hector vargaras running in new mexico. >> other races, robert aragon running for state auditor in new

mexico. rick lopez in that state for treasurer. and george p. bush running for texas land commissioner in texas. there are, of course, the entire house of representatives is up for election. we expect the majority of latinos to be re-elected. but there are some races in the mix throughout the country. here in california, representative ruiz who defeated mary bono is running for re-election and has a very competitive race against an assembly member. joe garcia who also ran and was elected in florida, first hispanic democrat elected to congress from florida is running against the competitive field of republicans on august 26th. we'll see who

will be challenging him in what we expect to be a very competitive race. one district in texas has changed hands between political parties several times over the past several decades. pete gayego is running. it's the third district which is another -- california's 21st district in the central valley -- being challenged by amanda rentirilla. so part of what we want to see in naleo is the growth of latino elected officials. these are the numbers that we're

publishing here at the naleo naleo conference in 2014. and here's the comparison over the past ten years. we've gone from no u.s. senators ten years ago to three. the house -- members of congress from 22 to 28. overall, the increase has been 25 percent in the numbers of latinos in elected office from just under 5,000 to just over 6,000 latinos serving in elected office across the country today. so that's a little bit about where we are in terms of the number of latinos who we expect to turn out for the elections. the impact we had in 2010 and 2012. and now to talk about the political impact and context of 2014, i'm going to invite up my guests and panelists to put this in contest and explain to us

what they're doing to make a difference. so as an introduce you, please come up and join me. first we'll start with my friend daniel garza who began his career with u.s. congressmen richard haysty. he served on the george w. bush administration. he served as coproducer of linda washington on univision.

>> she's a senior analyst for latino decisions. she was named one of the top 12 scholars in the country. she received her ph.d. from duke university. she is also a contributor to msnbc and a regular political analyst for telemundo. welcome, doctor. [applause] >> and next we have the president of the latino victory project. prior to joining the project, he spent five years in

investing more than $16 million to increase political participation into communities of color. most recently, cristobol was named one of d.c.'s most influential leaders under 40. so please welcome our panel lists. [applause] >> so let's start with dr dr. francesco. give us an overview of what you think this election is really going to mean for latinos and what the latino vote will do. >> i'm going to start off with a question, and it's a question that i frequently get and i'm sure many of you get which is who cares about latinos? and people don't say it that way.

it usually comes about in terms of, oh, yeah, latinos are the fastest growing population. but they're pulling in third in terms of behind african american and white. so we see this question being posed and it's a valid question and these are facts that we are facing. but i want to answer this question. and i want to answer this question with facts and data. and i'm going to be really, really blunt. we matter. partly. because we're having a lot of babies. case in point right here. baby max is going to be born the september before

the presidential election. i didn't plan it this way but maybe it was a consideration. right now, age is a liability for our community. the average age of latinos is ten years below that of anglos and african americans. so 27 as opposed to 37. so when you're looking at new latino destinations such as north carolina, arkansas, tennessee, the average age is 15. young folks just don't vote. they have other things going on in their lives. but what i want us to keep our eye on and arturo showed this in the graph is the demographic change. so there's that aspect of it. another one i want to highlight

is poli-sy 101 show that poor folks and folks with lower educations are less likely to vote. but if we just look at that static number, we're losing sight of the dynamics. in the last couple of years, and dennis in his remarks alluded to this, we have made huge strides with our educational attainment. just last year, latino college enrollment surpassed that of white college enrollment. high school college dropouts are dropping. we also have rising

levels of education. at the same time, we have increases in economic attainment. our community suffered the most in the great recession. i think it was 68 percent of our wealth that we lost. and ironically, those who are the poorest and have the most to gain from being politically involved usually don't vote. but what we see with this rising tide of economic attainment that latinos are gaining on, this is also going to push us to the polls. so that's the first part of my answer to, well, why do latinos matter. the second is because we're swingy. latinos have swing tendencies. compared to african americans and whites, latinos have the biggest chunk of independent voters. in the last couple of elections,

latinos definitely tended toward the democrat party. but let's not forget about the early 2000s. and living in texas, i see a very vibrant latino and republican relationship even in the midst of some strained immigration issues. so we know that latinos also matter because of that middle ground that they inhabit. and geographically, they also tend to be in the swing states. so latinos matter not just because of that middle they occupy but because political entrepreneurs know it too. and they're going after them. and they want to pull them in. i have 37 seconds

left, so i'm going to wrap it up. i would love to talk later about battle ground texas, something that i'm seeing on the ground because i think it's this beautiful example of how you see this latino demographic brute force that's striving for educational attainment, economic power and democrats and republicans are going mono y mono for these voters. with that, i will wrap it up. >> all right. thank you. [applause] >> and we will certainly talk about the battle ground of texas. fortunately, we have two tejanos on this panel. actually three, i was born in el paso.

>> so, daniel, you're obviously coming at this from a perspective of reaching conservative latino voters and growing the leger -- elector e electorate. >> we need to create the same environment and feel here. we engage latinos by talking about market principle. this this

country of the -- by doing that, by engaging in churches and chamber of commerces and colleges and universities, wherefore they congregate and meet, we feel we can do that proper outreach to get latinost to come out and vote. obviously we have a considerable perspective. there is no argument that the democrat party has benefitted from the latino vote for the longest time. every presidential race, the republican party has never enjoyed a majority of the hispanic vote. george bush set the high water mark at 45 percent. i think what's important here is that we understand that this has been a conversation within the latino community that has been dominated by the left. so their

credit, folks on the left have outreached, been in the communities, have seen the value of the growing demographic in the latino community and they've capitalize on that by sending resources and people and engaging the latino vote. so what i have seen as a political observer as well, srturo, is that on the conservative side there's been a dereliction of duty, actually advancing the principles that you eh spoused. what are those policies that generate prosperity and those that generate poverty. we should be having an honest conversation about those issues. so i think the republican party has sort of had a bad approach to this. they just felt that

the principles of economic freedom and the free market would sell itself to the community. because look at who we say we are. 33 percent of us self-identify us as conservativ conservatives. only 30 percent as liberals. so the actual majority is actually agreeing with you at any point in the latino community. but we haven't been courted effectively. running sort of -- news packages on policy on an

eight: ratios. my point is this, latinos have not rejected conservative or republican candidates because of what they believe, because of the principles. they rejected them because there's been an absence of this conversation about the virtues of the free market, self-reliance, hard work, about what makes america strong. so we aim to drive that conversation even in i think a state like texas where 44 percent self-identify as democrats and only 16 percent self-identify as republicans. there are massive gains to be made by conservative candidates because there is, i think, there's been so much open field, you know, for the democrats for so long that now as conservatives who engage, those who went up to the highest offices in the republican party

based on republican votes. there is opportunity if they engage. there is opportunity. and this is a generation of ronald reagan that grew up and was influenced by this. so i'll wrap up and say the conversation needs to be driven by the republican party and they stand to gain much more than i think the democrat party because they are so far behind that if they actually increase the percentages just a little bit, they stand to gain a lot from the latino community. which of course makes us powerful. >> thank you. it's probably a good time to remind us all that what makes naleo an important

forrum is about engaging and respecting each other. all right. you have the floor. >> we may have different ideas about politics but we're all latinos. i want to talk just for a few minutes and turn back if i could go to the power point here. going back to the question about values. and what brings us together. i'll start with a very personal story. a lot of folks here in this room and daniel and others, we're, many of us come from families of immigrants. my parents came to this country with very little searching for the american dream. and my mom did everything she could so that my brother and i could have the chances she didn't have. and she didn't guess -- by the time my brother and i came around,

she had family in el paso and did everything she could so we could have chances that she didn't have. my brother always wanted to be president and my mom said he could be whatever he wanted to be. he is autistic. he knows that but he cherishes his right to vote and knows voting is his voice. at the same time and unfortunately you mentioned this at the beginning, across the country, there are laws designed to suppress the vote. they have a disproportionate impact on people like my brother and on the latino community. in texas, they passed a law that said if you have university of texas student id card, you can't vote but if you have a concealed

handgun permit, no problem. and you can see what these laws are designed to do, they're passed for political reason. the right has a different idea of values answer principles. so what they're doing is shaving the vote and working to suppress latino political power and it's the same reason why the right won't pass immigration reform. they don't want us to vote. i have to say that and i'm sorry to say that. and if these laws aren't bad enough, we have problems in our community that keep us from building political power. we talked about this mile stone in 2012 but more latinos stayed home that dathan actually voted. we have a dearth of latino election officials. this room should be a lot bigger. with a country of

millions and only 28 representing us in country, we should have twice more than we have now. we make up two percent of all elected in the country. what that means is we have a vicious cycle. when you don't see your faces, voices, similar names on the ballot, you're likely to vote and that further depresses turnout. we have to change that. i'm running out so i'll say this briefly: what happens if we're successful and we change this game. that's what led eva longoria to launch the latino victory project. and if successful, what can happen is this: you see this picture, the u.s. census 2010 had 1200 voters but only 150 of those latinos

turned out to vote in a given election. they pressed the local authorities to improve the roads and they were told why bother, nobody out there votes anyways. so they pressed them and asked what would it take to show proof of life and they said 300 votes. so they took them up on that offer and turned up more than 500 voters for a local location. [applause] >> now look at this same road a year and a half later. this is what happens. we have to take every place in the country to truly have latino political power. and when we do, we have to do things differently. we have to invest in our own communities as the leadership pipeline and that's what we're working to do. and when we're successful, latino values which are american values will be

reflected in the policies that move our country forward. it means that we have access to adequate healthcare that's affordable and universal. it means we have access to an ample education. it means that immigrants come out of the shadows and are equal participants in our community and have good jobs that pay living wages. i started at the beginning by talking about my brother. when he went to vote on november 6th, 2012, he didn't have the right id when he showed up. luckily for him and others that law wasn't in effect that day. it is now but on that day it was not in effect in which he was able to vote. by pure coincidence, the newspaper got a

picture of him. we have it framed at home. it was the best day of his life. and so together for our brothers, sisters, our communidad, we have to work together to pave that road. that's it. >> thank you. [applause] >> okay. so we have a little bit of time to get into this and peel back the skin on the onion. now what does the emergens of these two institutions mean? we have them certainly approaching the latino vote from a partisan political perspective. the libre initiative is a c4 so it's a much more political

perspective than naleo would ever do. what does this mean in terms of political development? >> this agreement and debate is the life blood of democracy. so the fact that we have these two gentleman who have very different political perspectives to me is wonderful. i love it. i also want -- [applause] >> beyond that, beyond where they are politically, one thing that is very exciting for me is to see the eye on the money because at the end of the day in politics whether you like it or not, we run on money in this political system. and in order to run and be viable, you need that funding. so i think that this is really where the future of the mature ration of latino

politics politics lays. but really putting their money where their mouth is. >> your institution came out of the fund of efforts of others to bring money into the political system. daniel, you referenced economic power as being part of the pillars of latino development. so money is a common thread here. what does money, from your perspective, you talked about developing economic economic wealth. >> frankly, whatever institution, the accumulation and eh efficiency of capital to doing anything you want to do. with it, you're limited in what you can do but it also positions

you to do things that normally you wouldn't do if you didn't have the resources to do it. it's critical we do that. i think as a community, we have evolv evolved. we have stepped up when it comes to being able to seek and get donations from aligned americans. i'm a conservative. that's who i am and what i believe. it's a game where you have to get your ideas into the marketplace and if people buy those ideas, they're going to join you. so that's the game and you need capital to do that. >> let me change this a little bit. just remembering last year on your stage, henry munoz was here as a leader of the dnc and he was talking about how latinos have benefitted -- the democrat party have benefitted from latino participation but he also sat there and was faced with a

question about where are the latinos in the cabinet. he admitted that the progress had not been achieved. is the democrat party at risk of losing latinos to daniel's efforts because of taking us for granted. >> what henry also said before and the reason the latino victory project is nonpartisan is we can't be taken for granted by any party or candidate. we have to build our own power for the future of our own country. that's also connected to this money question. i think it's so important that we talk about that because our community is not used to talking about this question. the fund it was first time that they broke the code and figured out how to get latinos engageded in the political process. for us, what that means is to be successful, to increase the number of latinos elected to you more

members, we need to invest in our own community. that's why we launched a program called the first. in our families, we usually have the first daughter or whatever to achieve the first mile stone in the family like the first doctor, the first college graduate. they're the leaders in the family. they're the ones who need to invest in the community. they'll be the one to deliver the first latino president of the united states. [applause] >> i wanted to sum it up. [speaking in spanish] we need to put into our community that notion of writing checks. the anglo community is able to do that. they just have become

accustomed to doing it. it's not part of our routine and it's something we need to start doing. i don't care if it's $5. if it's $100,000, great. but it starts with the routine and we know from political research that once you do something, you're more likely to just keep doing it over and over again. so i think our organizations are really critical in starting that tradition of money giving. >> i was going to say, a telling statistic is in the state of texas, only 25 percent of latinos have been reached out to by a political organization or candidate. only 25 percent. it's no wonder that only 38 percent is the turnout rate for texasens while in florida, it's 62 percent for latinos. so you see a disparity there in messaging, folks getting the words, informing the elect rat

in it. it is a marketplace of ideas. money is critical. >> so let's talk about texas now. because this is -- you know, it is the big price increasingly so and as it continues, even the bigger prize in california. take the four congressional seats after this last redistricting, reaportionenment. 65 percent of texas's growth was latino. daniel, there is a lot of effort to turn texas from red to purple to blue. now, i think you're probably looking at that threat as you're based in texas yourself. how are you going to stop that? >> we want more hispanic engagement, that's not a secret agenda. that's what we're

about. so turning texas blue goes against everything we're about. so battle ground texas of course is a correct term so we have to engage. we have to get into the communities. we have to work with churches, we have to work with chamber of commerces and with our partners on the ground. we are also creating a volunteer force. we're going to have about 3,000 folks who are going to be on the ground helping us to advance conservative principles and ideas. we're already well on our way to enlisting folk who is are already helping us. we have staff all over texas. that's what it's all about. it's engagement. and i think at the same time, it's an opportunity to also engage our young and get them involveded in the political process at a certain age where they can begin to see the process from the inside. for far too long, the latino

community was on the outside looking in. back in the '60s and '70s, we had to march and protest because that's all we had. so it was uncomfortable to do that but that's the only solution we had. now we're on the other side. this is a new generation that is more sophisticated that is now in the state legislatures, in high elected offices. let's use those resources and drive the conversation both on the left and on the right and now let's do that. >> we'll come back to that because there are a lot of latinos still marching on the streets and holding sitins. there are really realistic prospects of a blue texas? >> there's no doubt that latinos in texas are going to build political power and that it's going to change the course of this country. it's just a matter of when. for us, we're

taking the long view with an eye on 2020. in 2020, you have some things that rarely happen at the same thing which is a presidential election, census, followed by redistricting and latino majorities in california and texas, two of the biggest states. we have to be ready with that, with the leadership pipeline, the resources. because if we're successful, turn out a record number of voters, elect a record number of latinos, we can then draw the redistricting lines and help drive policy with latino values for the balance of the century. now, i have to take -- i have to point this out. first, i like daniel. he's a nice guy. >> he's got a nice jacket. >> he's honest. has the nicest jacket in the building. and i think he's honest. i really do.

and i think what he said is accurate. i think the firm that he's hired to do his ads that are actually attacking latino candidates and we only have a few. but he's honest but his ads are not and the reason i point this out is we have a couple of people in texas that can change that state starting now. we've got pete diego. he's really put his neck out there for immigration and latinos under attack. she's a rising star and we've got other rising stars across the country but i would just like to ask you to hold your fire on our latino candidates. >> what happens is he says it as if the left doesn't -- doesn't play politics either as if the

left doesn't message, you know, to position their positions or their ideas. look, everything that we do is fact checked. everything we do we have to stand by it and it has to be ethical and above board. so it's a game of let's have this conversation and we're going to have that conversation and we're not going to back down because it's not about pete giego. it's about his ideas. we don't want centralize government. we don't want collectivism. we don't want policies that lean away from self-reliance. that's the idea of the battle that we're having. so let's have that conversation but i'm not going to play the game of backing away from latino candidates when their ideas are not good for the country and i believe strongly that conservative principles are better for our community and i will drive that conversation regardless of the sentiments

expressed. >> all right. there's probably a lot of other candidates that don't expect to see the value you want to see that you could go after. that's what i'm saying. >> i want to get into the issue of immigration now and vickie, i want the start with you. your capacity working with latino decisions you've been doing some, i think, really excellent polling of the latino elector rat. it's been an issue for the community butelectorate. it's for the community but not -- talk to us about that. >> so immigration and you mentioned this at the beginning of your comments is not the

all-encompassing issue for latinos. we care about education, income. however, what immigration has become is a gateway issue for latinos. because what we have seen is that latinos in the middle, moderate, conservatives, are pushing back against the tenor of the rhetoric toward immigration. so even though it may not tangibly affect them, they are moving away from those candidates who speak of immigration in such a way. so it's a gateway issue and the republican party is the split down the middle. there's the george w. bush school of thought that back in the 1990s got it

and said, you know what, immigration is part of this country and we need to put it inside of the big tent and this is how we are going to court latino voters as part of a larger agenda. the problem with immigration and the republican party is in selling it to the non-hispanic base and that was one thing that george w. bush was very good at. if they do come to that fork in the road and say we're going to tone down the tenor and try to figure out a solution, latinos will support this. because one thing we've been finding is that latinos don't hold a grudge. we asked in survey after survey if the

gop were to turn strategy and embrace immigration reform and not even necessarily a comprehensi comprehensive, they'd say i'd give the gop a shot. we're talking 40 to 50 percent of latinos. the question is in immigration is the gop going to pursue that vote. >> so, daniel, question to you obviously. as the a reminder to all of us, also a year ago, the chair of the republican national committee sat on this stage endorsing immigration reform and, yet, here we are a year later and the house has refused to move on immigration reform. what do you think? >> without question, how a candidate or a party or an individual who is running for

elected office speaks about minorities in their political narrative, the impression that you're given is how you speak about and your remedies. the republican party has not done a good job on that in terms of immigration, that's absolutely right. but that doesn't mean that hispanics should run away from the republican party. that means they should flood it so they can change it. america was built on waves of poor immigrants who created new wealth, new opportunities. we should be fighting for that system that absorbed those immigrants and not resisting. it is good for our families, community, and our future. >> i've been invited by tea

parties, i was in front of the scottsdale tea party driving immigration reform. our preference is a pathway to citizenship. but we also understand the political realities of things and that the democrat party doesn't get to define what immigration reform. it has to be done in a true bipartisan spirit. i feel that if we can inform the hispanic community with conservative principles, we can win a lot of those percentages back. they need to come to the middle and reconcile those differences and we want to be a bridge to that. >> i said at the beginning that the reason the right doesn't pass immigration reform is because they don't want us to vote. now, when you look at

those conservative principles that you espouse -- >> but -- [talking over one another] >> we can work together on this because here's what we have to do to build political power which is hold these folks accountable who are stopping immigration reform. hold them accountable. those are the ones running in november on the right. let's increase the latino vote and hopefully we can have immigration reform. but the problem is it's not just -- it's also a problem when you look at other things that we hold dear. if you think about the environment, we want to have a clean environment that we can leave to our children and grandchildren. we want to have

protections and regulations that allow us to work and get paid a good living wage. those are things that they're against. so you will not get latino voters across the board. it's not going to work within our communities. >> vickie. >> oh, where to begin. what has happened with regard to immigration has been -- as you two gentlemen pointed out is a stalemate. it's a stalemate that we're seeing at the federal level between executives and congress. and i fear that it's not going to bunch in the short term. namely, the next two to three years. so i want to train the spotlight on something else which is state and local level

politics with regard to immigration. because we are stuck in d.c. nothing is happening in d.c. but at the end of the day, people carry out their lives day-to-day in their neighborhoods, cities, and counties, and we see a lot of the effects happening to folks getting picked up and deported, noncriminals. okay. the criminals we understand. you know, they're breaking the law and they need to law because they have a criminal record and what not. but for other folks day-to-day we need to figure out how our state legislatures, county and school boards can affect the lives of immigrants and also latinos more generally. so we can go back and forth and point fingers. president barack obama, boehner and others.

that's not going to help. politics is local and i think that is the viewpoint i would want to leave you with. >> it is and in fact that is what the midterm elections really are all about, these are elections that are happening at the local level, 435 congressional races, legislative races, state wide races. what do you think the process will be for latino republicans in this election? >> the process for? >> prospects. >> prospects. i think this election year is trending conservative republican. the way things are looking right now if you look at the political map across the country, the republicans are going to take the senate. they're going to hold the house. i think, folks, especially hispanics are disillusioned with the obama administration. obamacare --

think, say generalizations and platitudes. they need to be a part of the

community and earn our vote. democratshink the have done that. they had the opportunity and they lost it. >> what typically happens is the midterm election drop-off with latinos and the problem is that it allows for those on the right to increase their power and, in so doing, moving on immigration reform is harder to do and moving on a cleaner environment is harder to do. i hope we can flip that this that to increase latino turnout in a substantial way and spotlight the problems that we are seeing with the right. they held up immigration reform and you mention something that i think is a perfect example. to get latinosrd out of vogue, we remove representative kaufman and we

thwart someone who is anti-immigrant from taking positions. we are in california and something special happened with proposition 187. this was an anti-immigrant initiative and it showed latinos running on the screen saying, they just keep coming. they registered, they turned out in record numbers. you will not see that happen. we have changed the state forever. we can use the right holding up immigration reform to springboard success for latinos across the country. >> all right. unfortunately, we are coming to the close of the opening session and this has put into context what this election means and what the next days of conversation will be. i will give you time to make final remarks and we will let you have the last word.