thursday edition. thank you for being with us. hope you enjoy the rest of your day. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] ♪ >> the white house today, president obama is going to award the pedal of honor to civil war shoulder first lieutenant alonzo curbing for his actions as a commanding officer at the battle of gettysburg. we'll have live coverage here on c-span when the ceremony starts at 11:45 eastern. house speaker john boehner and the incoming likely majority leader of the senate mitch mccome have an op-ed in the "wall street journal" today. now we can get congress going. reform the tax code.

redefine full-time as working 40 hours a week. move on the keystone x.l. pipeline. they write they'll focus first on jobs and the economy. that means a renewed effort to debate and vote on the many bills that passed the republican-led house in recrept years with bipartisan support but were never even brought to a vote by the democratic senate majority. it also means renewing our commitment to repeal obamacare which is hurting the job market along with americans' health care. you'll find more online at the "wall street journal." you heard house speaker john boehner will be briefing reporters today. his first take before reporters and others on the midterm elections. we'll have that live for you at :15 eastern on c-span. >> this weekend on the c-span networks, friday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span, more reaction to the midterm elections. on saturday night at 8:00, a debate on the future of the internet. and sunday evening at 8:00 on "q&a," author and television host, tavis smiley, on his

latest book. and friday night at 8:00 on c-span2, amherst college professor on german occupied paris during world war ii. saturday night at 10:00 on book tv's afterwards, racial progress in america. and sunday night at 10:00, what makes us human and different to other species. friday at 8:00, on american istory tv on c-span , metal of -- medal of honor recipients reflect on their service. and the social prejudice immigrants faced during the 1800's. sunday night at 8:00, the 25th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall. find our television schedule at c-span.org and let us know what you think about the programs you're watching. call us at 202-626-3600. email us at comments@c-span.org. or a tweet at c-span #comments.

like us on facebook follow us on twitter. >> the latino victory project released polling results yesterday of over 5,000 latino voters on their key issues and vote vations for voting in tuesday's midterm elections. speakers include pollsters from the group latino decisions along with representatives from the national council of la rassa, people for the american way, and the national association of latino elected and appointed officials. this is about an hour and a half. %%% >> i'm going to squeeze in here and welcome you to this very important conversation. my name is henry munoz. with eva longoria, i'm one of the co-founders of the latino victory project. my father, who was an activist, used to tell me that the movement of a people begins with the steps of just one person. this conversation that we are having this morning is really part of the evolution that has

been taking place within our community for a very long time. and the people who are on this podium have been people who have devoted their entire lives to the expression of the voice of the latino community. i'm very honored to be joining each and every one of them this morning and thankful to you who reflect our voice for being here this morning for this conversation. we were happy to partner with frank sharry and his organization to undertake this poll and to convene this meeting. let me introduce to you frank sharry. [applause] >> thank you. good afternoon, good morning to those on the west coast. who are watching by live stream and through c-span. welcome to all of you in the room. we are very excited about today's program. we really want to lift up the voices of latino voters. we do these election polls for a

particular reason. the exit polls are good in some things, many things, actually, in terms of talking to all voters about who they voted for and so forth, but they do a notoriously terrible job at capturing subgroups like latinos. and has been long dissent by controversy and debate about the methodology used. i'm hoping that gary and matt will be able to address that so you understand the reason we do the latino voter election polls is so we can really capture their behavior at the polls and their motivations for coming to the polls, and we did something a little unusual this time, we also are going to look at those who decided not to vote, what were some of the motivations and factors involved in that. before we turn our focus to the behavior of latino voters in the

2014 mid terms, i want to make a few comments, all of us work very hard on immigration reform, and there were things that came out of last night's election that was surprisingly good news for us. number one, again the exit polls are pretty good. talking to all voters, not subgroups, they asked voters where they came down on the question of legal status versus deportation. contrary to the conventional wisdom that has been a real drop in support over legal status, the results had it nationwide. it was 57-39 margin. showing again strong durable support for legal status. he issue salience of immigration was also tested. it does appear republicans listed immigration reform as a top issue more than other voters. it does seem to us that it reveals a dynamic we are familiar with in the world of immigrant -- immigration reform and advocacies.

immigration reform with legal status is a winner with the public. and yet there is a strong loud but not particularly large base in the republican party that is opposed to it. so when you see candidates demagoguing the issue of immigration in the campaign as we saw in a number of race this is year, we see it as their base -- part of their base turnout strategic -- strategy not a strategy devoted at swing voters. swing voters like most democrats are in favor of legal status. a dynamic we think worth lifting up. we just want to highlight that new hampshire senator's race, you have one of the least diverse states in the country. you have senator jean shaheen who leaned into the issue of immigration reform. supported comprehensive immigration reform up against a formidable campaigner in scott brown who made border security and fear mongering around isis and ebola a staple of his effort, and she was rewarded with a victory despite those

efforts of people like the groups like the anti-immigrant groups and laura ingram and jeff sessions really made that the top race that they were focused on. really wanted a scott brown victory. it didn't happen. then finally what we are going to plum is how about the democrats? they seem to be awfully cautious when it came to issues of immigration reform this year. and we would suggest, i think we'll have data to show, that didn't work out well for them. without further ado let me tell you who is on the stage and introduce our key presenters from latino decisions. on the dais here with me, starting from my life and your . ght, we have laura maristany have ben monitor rowso -- monterroso, we have janet

margula. we have randy born trager people for the american way. ma leano the immigration campaign director for the afl-cio. without further ado let me turn it over to gary segura and matt barreto, the co-founders of atino decisions. >> first of all let me say to the polling partners, thank you for the opportunity to do this work. particularly to janet and henry and frank and your organizations for taking the lead and for the polling partners who are participating in the study.

we think this is an important way to make sure that there's a clear database record of what latino voters felt in the election. it's something we have been doing for several cycles. on behalf of my partners, co-principal, sylvia, and analysts, we are very happy to be here. let's get to it. we are going to start by talking about the election eve poll and methle to gi. the election eve poll was conducted in 10 states plus a national side sample so we could have a weighted view of the entire country. ,00 individuals were interviewed -- 4,200 individuals were interviewed. the interviews were from october 29 to november 3. the national nominal margin of errors -- corrective margin of error is plus or minus 1.9%. and state is 4.9%.

what is an election eve poll? we sample on extreme high propensity voters, that is individuals who have voted on every occasion since the 2006 election if they were registered for that period. and people who registered since the last election. we can't have a vote on them. we then ask each of those individuals once we get them on the line if they have already voted by mail or absentee or early vote station or if they are absolutely certain to vote on election day. those are the only individuals we interview in past election eve polls we have validated that at an 88% positive hit rate. meaning 88% of the people we talk to do sign it on election day. each individual is offered the opportunity to speak in the language of their choice at the point of first contact of the all callers are live. there is no row bow calling. we call to both lan lines and cell phones. an important modification in the community. the top point we want to convey

to you is underinvestment in latinos and their issues contributed to a difficult night for democrats in a mostly white electorate for republicans. something that has been true for most of the last 20 years. the national summary, latinos were on the losing end of close eelectoral contests in most of the states. the latino margin of two-party vote was outside the margin of victory and hence pivotal in the states of rhode island, kentucky if the results hold, colorado for the governor's race if the result holds, and virginia for the senate election if the result holds. across most contests, the latino vote share in 2014 was less democratic than two, four, and six years ago. and this of course is an important finding. let's talk about the latino vote in 2014. for the house of representatives, nationally we found about 70%, 69% of latinos

cast their vote for democrats in the two-party vote compared to 27% for the republicans. there is obviously variation across states. illinois being the most democratic. florida being the least democratic. most republican. that's consistent with past trends. for the united states senate, we found a two-party vote distribution of 67 to 28 with a fairly modest number of individuals casting for a third party largely plused up by the presence of kansas in our study, but there were third party candidates in a number of different races. again state level variation was pretty wide. particular durbin as you can see did very well in illinois. and kay haigen in north carolina did the least well of any democratic or independent nominee. the view of the democratic party towards the latino community, we asked our respondents what they thought about democrats'

attitudes towards latinos. do they truly care? really don't care much at all? or even hostile? as you can see, 48% report that democrats truly care about the latino community. that's the lowest number we have observed since we have been taking -- asking this question for the last couple years. 36% either say he they don't care too much or are hostile. by comparison, 42% say they don't care too much and 23% say hostile with respect to the republican party, meaning 65% of latino voters see republicans as disinterested or hostile. while only 22% view republicans as caring for the community and its needs. so why latinos voted. matt will tell you about that. >> thanks, gary. thanks, everyone, for your interest today. as gary said, we have a methodology that is definitely different from the national exit

poll which we think doesn't do a good job of interviewing latinos. we think that's why this is so important. i'll talk about that later in another segment. for now let's talk about why latinos voted. what brought them to the polls on tuesday, november 4. we asked a question we have been asking since 2010. i heard some analysis this morning that said something like, some of the republican voters in senate races, 95% of them, said the reason they were voting was to vote against the democratic agenda or against obama. that for many voters, especially for white voters, they are really motivated by partisan reasons. we have a stark contrast to that with the latino community. you can seat national number there in the middle. 37% of latinos, the highest number, said that the reason that they were voting in 2014 was to support the latino community. in contrast, 34% said the reason they showed up on election day was to support the democratic candidate.

16% said to support the republican candidate. the first reason given, the largest reason given, was that they showed up to vote to support the latino community. which is a very strong testament to the work that many of the groups that are at the table are doing in a nonpartisan way, reaching out and encouraging latinos to participate. you can see the variation in that. it's very high in almost all the states, but some states like illinois and california, 45 and 43%, extremely high number of latinos said they were voting to support the latino community. overall, we found that 41% of latinos said they had been contacted or mobilized. certainly there's less mobilization than there is in presidential years, again there's much work to be done here with this community in getting those numbers up higher. people off ask gary and i about the, quote, lola tino turnout in mid terms, or the dropoffs of latino turnout in mid turms. you can see if only four out of 10 latino voters are being

contacted, there's much work to be done here in getting out the latino vote. most of that falls at the feet of candidates and campaigns who need to engage our community. who did most of the engaging this year? we asked for those 41%. among the 41% who got contact, 56% said that it was a democratic campaign. 35% said it was a republican campaign. interestingly here, 32%, almost the same that were contacted by republicans, a third of the latinos, said it came from a community organization. that's much higher than you'll see for white americans who overwhelmingly receive their contact from one of the two major parties. for latinos, a third of that contact is coming from other la teen heo organizations. this question here -- latino organizations. this question here said they could receive from multiple sources. at the start of our survey we asked an open-ended question asking people what is the number one issue that you want congress

and the president to address? 45% said immigration reform is the number one issue. 34% said jobs and the economy. and other issues that were right up there at the top of the list were issues related to education reform, improving schools, and health care. people talking about continued health care expansion as we know. gary will talk about later medicaid expansion was a hot issue in many states with a large latino population. we also want to take just a latino o contrast nonvoters. what were their views and how did they see this election? all of the attention has always been during the exit poll discussion on those who voted. what were the motivations. this year we did something different where we also interviewed people who said, no, i'm not voting. when we were screening them, they said i'm not going to vote. absolutely not. we kept them on the phone and asked them a couple of motivating reasons for their not

turning out to vote. in particular we should thank henry munoz and his organization for bringing this idea to the table. it's something we haven't done and it shows a lot of interesting insight into the latino community. overall, at the start, 25% say their schedule does not allow enough time to get off work and go vote. we know many people in our community have jobs that don't always enable them to have extra time off even though they should be legally required, they don't get that time off paid and they may be working extra jobs to make ends meet. 25% of nonvoters, 1/4, said the reason was scheduling problems. an additional 24% didn't have the basic information. they don't know where their polling place is. they wouldn't know where to go. so some very basic things can help improve turnout among latinos. 19% said they were frustrated by bad candidates who weren't addressing issues that were important to them. interestingly, 14% of people in our nonvoter sample said they

believe they did not have the proper voter photo i.d. we know this is a very hot issue in many states. we found a sizable number, 14%, who told us they did not have that information. gary reviewed the views of the parties of the voters. i'm going to review the parties of the nonvoters. you can see at a starting point they're much lower. these are people who are frustrated. only 33% of those who did not vote said the democratic party truly cares. gary said earlier that was 48%. only 12% feel that the republican party cares. that was 22% earlier. you can see those numbers in the middle there, 27% think democrats don't care and 22% think democrats are hostile. 49%. for republicans the numbers are even worse. 42% think they don't care, and 28% think they are being hostile. 70% of our respondents think that about the republicans. 49% about the democrats. so these nonvoters certainly have lower opinions of the two major parties than do voters.

probably the question that gary and i have faced the most as analysts and going into this election is what impact would the president's delay on executive action have? it was very speculative. we did ask a question earlier this summer about that, but it's now speculative. in our nonvoter sample we asked them how the delay in executive action made them feel? 60% said that made them less enthusiastic about the democratic party and supporting the democratic party. only 23% said it made them feel more enthusiastic. we have for the first time some evidence to suggest that for some of these voters who didn't vote, in fact, they weren't mentioning this as a reason they were less enthusiastic about tuesday, november 4. finally, on this topic, before i turn it back to garery, we think these nonvoters can become voters in 2016. many of these folks have presidential vote history, they participated in 2012 and 2008.

we asked a future looking question, if president obama enacts executive orders before the end of this year, would that make you more or less enthusiastic about supporting the democratic party and voting in the future? 68% said that, yes, that would make them feel more enthusiastic about coming back and returning as voters. while it may have dampened their enthusiasm in 201, we think there is a road forward to bring these nonvoters back into the electorate. gary. >> to add a footnote to the presentation, remember these nonvoter surveys were conducted among registered voters. these are not individuals who are not registered. these are folks who are registered to vote and chose not to. they could be motivated. what role did immigration play in the 2014 election? we asked people what's the most important issue facing the community that you vote on? with the exception of the state of florida, where jobs and the economy outpaced immigration, immigration is the most frequently provided answer. we allow all respondents to give

us up to two issues that they are concerned about. and immigration was more likely to be mentioned as one of them than jobs and the economy in every state except florida. nationally, immigration was the most important issue. immigration salience, we decided to ask a direct question, how important is the issue of immigration to your decision to vote and who to vote for? a third of our respondents said it was the most important issue in driving them to the polls and making a choice. and 34% said it was one of the most important issues. so 67% of our voters listed immigration as near the top or at the top of their issue agenda when casting a ballot. this is not surprising and we have been reporting numbers similar to this for the last year and a half. we keep asking folks do you happen to know someone who is an undocumented immigrant? our poll that ended last night, 56% of our respondents, these are registered voters who turned out to vote, know someone who is

undocumented. and as a consequence, the issue of immigration is very important. in other polling we find that these people more than half the time are members of their family. and so it's a salient issue for u.s. citizens who vote. despite overwhelming democratic advantage, we find that the democratic share of the two-party vote in almost every election we looked at was down compared to two, four, six years ago. back in the summer, we ran a poll for the center for american progress action fund where we asked people what they would respond if the president did not undertake executive action on behalf of undocumented immigrants seeking protection? we found at that time that 54% of our respondents said that their voter turnout enthusiasm will go down and 57% of our respondents said that their support for democratic candidates would go down. now, that was taken back in june of this year. and here's what happened on

election day. nationally, if we look at the house vote, this is house ballot in your congressional district, nationally we see a change from 2010 of a decline of seven percentage points for democrats. a change from 2012 in a decline of eight. if you go down the states you can see whopping numbers. a shocking decline in democratic party -- t--wo-par two-party su compared to 2010 from -- in nevada and texas. a substantial decline in colorado from just two years ago. the only place where we saw an increase was in florida from 2010, but it's actually a decline from 2012. overall democratic share of the two-party house vote declined everywhere we looked. democratic share of gubernatorial vote compared to the last elections and the 2012 presidential election. once again with the one exception of florida in comparison where charlie crist

got four percent more than alex did, in every other circumstance there was a dramatic decline in democratic two-party vote. in nevada we see a shocking decline where compared to four years ago the democratic nominee got 32% less of the latino vote than they got four years ago. now, to put it in context, of course, we are going to talk about nevada in a minute, there was -- governor sandoval ran virtually unopposed. his opponent had very little financing and he got more than 70% of the two-party vote statewide. if we look at the senate elections, looking at past senate election eve polls, we see that once again with only one exception there was a decline in all circumstances where we had a way to compare the election eve of this time to one of the previous waves. the only change from that is texas. as you can see i have given the results actions.

it's like rearranging deck chairs on the titanic. but the democrats did do slightly better there. we are going to take a closer look at key states and matt's going to walk you through those. >> thanks. we have information about all of the 10 states, in-depth information posted on our website, as well as our partner website. you can find that very easily at latinovote2014.o -- com. we are going to run through a couple of the key states and not every single result of all 10 states at this time. start in colorado. the state that probably got the most attention on the senate side. just looking at the vote, we saw strong support for democratic candidates. as gary reviewed these were declines from previous years. in particular, 2012 was one of the strongest states for president obama with the latino vote, 87%. of latinos in colorado voted for obama. clearly both did well,

outpacing their republican opponents, this was a drop when barack obama was at 7%. in colorado the number one issue that was mentioned was immigration at 45% compared to 40% of jobs and the economy, 16% education, and 11% health care. latino voters in colorado had immigration on their mind when they went to the polls. we think there is some mistakes made because of this. we had seen in pre-election polls that latino voters in colorado were concerned and thinking about immigration. so we asked a very specific question about the candidates in colorado. we asked voters in our sample, do you know exactly where udall or gardner stands on immigration? do they support comprehensive immigration reform? do they oppose comprehensive immigration reform? or maybe you don't know where they stand. well, 46% of latinos in colorado identified udall as pro-comprehensive reform. 47% said they weren't quite sure where udall stood on the

immigration issue. and 6% actually thought he was opposed. that's 53% who had the wrong position for mark udall. for cory gardner, 21% actually believe that he supported comprehensive immigration reform. we know that much his rhetoric in recent months has been different on immigration as compared to his vote history, 38% knew he was opposed to comprehensive immigration reform. again, 40% of latinos who didn't know what gardner's position on immigration reform was. because this was the top issue that was cited in colorado as we saw in the previous slide, we think there's a mistake here. there was an opportunity to message on this issue of immigration, to talk to latinos about this issue of immigration, and that would created clear contrasts. we know this was the strategy in 2012. if you look at the latino outreach that the obama campaign did in colorado. almost every one of their ads talked about the contrast between president obama and governor romney on the

immigration issue. our result suggests that was absent in colorado this year. colorado's a story of an undermobilization. we think tradge inc. messaging for latinos. latino voter priorities virtually were unmentioned in the udall campaign. we knowthe udall campaign. receivedhat udall criticism for not having a diverse enough set of issues that he talked about on the stump. so some messaging opportunities. it is a state that democrats have done very well with the latino vote recently, and the candidates did well, but they did not do as good as some historic benchmarks. north carolina is another state that has gotten a lot of attention. overall, we found the house ballot at 67% democratic and the senate ballot at 63% to democratic for hagan. overwas a nine-point drop obama's performance where he got 72% of latino vote, and the 63% is the lowest mark of any of the

candidates in terms of the democratic side or the independent site in terms of the latino vote. this is not surprising to us in a pre-election bowl that we did with the -- poll that he we did with the council of la raza in north carolina, 45% just three weeks of their undecided they did not know which candidate they were with. 57%, the highest of any state, cited immigration as a top issue. it is a very emigrant heavy state. and this is on their minds in

2014. hagan received the smallest share because we suggest the hagan position had something to do with the performance. that she was identified as one of the folks whose adjusted to the president to delay the action so moderate voters would not be worried in theory but as we opened with it revealed a clear majority support moving forward with the immigration reform. finally, let me talk about nevada as an example state. es,nevada, we found lucy flori the hispanic candidate for lieutenant governor receives 71% as strong performance but in the governor's election just receiving 52%. the high water mark for the hispanic republicans and a significant improvement over the numbers and 2010. but goodman did not have

extensive funding and virtually unfunded the sandoval went into the election with very high popularity ratings. and he conducted some hispanic reach, putting money into esl, a driver's permit bill, a more permit bill, a more moderate rhetoric, and signed medicaid expansion. he was rewarded with 47% of the latino vote. like other states, immigration was in the top percentage. also education receives a high mention. why did sandoval improve his lead so substantially? he had significant policy actions that were priorities of medicaid expansion. the very highly salient issue -- latinos have the highest rate of being uninsured, and that is

a top issue. he also had also a very small opposition. in texas we polled on different issues but t strong variation between 62% and 69% of the vote went to wendy davis. you can see education and health care, also clearly big issues to latino voters in texas. wendy davis lost considerable ground with latino voters. we so bill white receiving a higher share of the zeal vote in a previous election in 2010, and we know that abbott did make concerted efforts to convey to latino voters even as he received chris of them for some latino advocates in the state, he was making an effort. latinoas a huge

population, so it is hard to ignore the latino community. we know that it is going to take investment, we saw the investment start this year, but it is going to continue to need investment for that to go forward. some exit poll reports, and i want to talk a moment to talk briefly about the exit polls and highlight what we think our approach is so important, they show that abbott received about 42% of latino vote statewide p are we found that it was only 20-point netis a swing. we think this is utterly wrong. we think it present a stamping approach that the exit poll provides. they provide their exit poll ballots only in english. they do not have very many interviews at all in the el paso, laredo, rea rio grande valley of texas, and for those

who want to follow up, we have tried for many years for transparency to tell us what precincts there selecting how representative, what are the demographics, and they have not provided that. we provide that. we would like to know a few more details. where is the 42% from? with the 100% of the counties reporting, there were not very active in south or west texas. here is just a couple of counties that are majority latino, and looked at the numbers for 21, 23, 26 if he draws in the low 20's in 90% latino counties there is no possible way he got 42% of the

vote. we know this has to do with the ourinct selection, and polling contrast gives voters a chance to put a spate in the poll, and i want to take extra time to draw attention to that here in texas. we know similar things have happened in texas. te w where we can very similarly get data, but we will continue to look at precinct returns, and to compare our results to those to validate and show that when you look at the real vote data, the latino decision election poll is quite accurate. thank you. gary. >> i am going to wrap it up with other issues not related to immigration and also a few thoughts about thinking forward into the next cycle. we asked our respondents -- what approach was to solving the deficit budget, raising taxes for wealthy ns, cutting only

spending, or doing a combination of tax increases and spending cuts. as it was in a 2012 election, it is again the case that latinos show some very reasoned thinking on this. there is about a 35% population nationwide who favor a balanced approach of tax increases and spending cuts. and then another 35% to believe that tax increases are the andtion, not just coney spending cuts as important to the american people, so -- not draconian spending cuts is important to the american people. latinos would love to raise the minimum wage. nationwide, 78% raising the minimum wage come only 18% oppose it. there issues of

modest importance, a huge majority that favors increasing the minimum wage. we asked only among states that have not expanded the medicaid program whether or not it should be. in those states waited across them, 77% favored the extension of the medicaid program in only 15% opposed that. 81% ofl see that kansas, latino voters favored the .xpanse an expansion of medicaid clearly in both instances and every thing in between, that is a huge majority in favor of expanding medicaid. carbon pollution and climate change for your how important is it for the federal government to reduce climate change? was extremely important and another 33% said it very important, so 68% of latino registered voters who showed up for election in 2014 think climate change is very or extremely important and should be addressed.

so looking forward to the 2016 cycle, you know the question of executive action, which we think played a pretty meaningful role in this election, is still sitting on the table. we asked a question in our -- ifon eve poll president obama and ask this executive order before the end of the year, will that make you feel more enthusiastic or less enthusiastic about the democratic party? as you can see, 47% of our respondents said it would make them much more dizzy acid about democrats and a 16% said it --ld be somewhat, so that is much more enthusiastic about the democrats and 16% said it would be somewhat, so that is 63% we also asked what would happen if republicans in congress try to block the president from taking any executive action on immigration. lessquestion -- more or enthusiastic. 61% of our respondents said that that would make them less enthusiastic about the republican party and 46% of that 61% said it would make them much

less enthusiastic. of latino voters thought that would be a swell idea for republicans to do. we asked about the public and party standing because one of the big issues is whether or not latino votes are available to republicans, so 40% of all respondents agreed with the following term -- the gop has become so anti-immigrant and anti-latino that it would be hard for me to consider supporting them. 40%. on the other hand, toy for percent said they generally agree with the republican party on most issues and 22% say that they disagree with the republican party on some issues but would consider supporting them in the future. the lesson that we take from --t is that latinos remain that portion of the national population that has produced over the last 20 years the largest inter-election swing, republicans can have access to latino votes. policies that are of by

interest to latino communities and families. we also asked about the 2016 presidential election in generic terms. if the 2016 presidential election was held today, would you vote democrat or republican? 52% said they would vote democrat compared to 20% said they would vote republican, 28% are undecided, not super surprising given we have not attached a name to those things so that could make those numbers bounce a round, but a sizable advantage for a democrat going into 2016 p or are the 2014 takeaways? the latino vote continues to grow to radically, however, voters need to be inspired and mobilized by candidates. many feel ignored by the democratic party or taken advantage of or taken for granted. by contrast, many latinos feel like they are directly under attack by the gop, so in some respects there is a little bit of a possible both houses coming

out of this election, and i think how both parties react to the electorate in the next several months in several years will continue to shape how this key electorate grows in the coming years. all of our results will be made available at latinodecisions.com. .com and at our partner websites, and we look forward to hearing from you when it gets time for question and answers. >> thank you very much, gary. is this on? cool. here is what we will do -- we will get brief responses from our two original sponsors of this poll, and then we are to open it up for q&a. when we open it up for q&a, we will incorporate our other partners who are up and make sure a get a chance to give us their take, but we want to of course hear your questions and make sure we're clear on how those who are watching online can submit their questions to be asked in the room.

henrywe will hear from munoz, the cofounder of the latino victory project. they came in early and said they want to work on this. we are so thrilled that their organization exists. we are hoping for big things out of the impurity we know they did great work this cycle, and they also were generous enough to sponsor this event. let's have some comments from henry. the take away from me for this poll, and there are many, is the idea that we vote for the people who understand our community and protect our community and grow our community. when we started the latino victory project, we did it with the eye that we need to lead ourselves in this moment in our country's history, that we cannot delegate that leadership to anyone else. period.

we need to understand the viewpoints of candidates toward our community. period. for the future, this is a very valuable, very strong bundle of information that we will build upon to figure out toward 2016 and beyond how we need to organize issues thatound the are important to our community, around candidates that speak for our community, and with an eye toward developing the next generation of leadership within our community. principleshank the of latino decisions, i want to matt, and i look forward to sharing the stage with you so we can answer these questions. let me just talk to janet by saying that she was a very important part of the ersations that took plac

e in the very beginning of discussing whether there should be an ordovician like the latino victory project, in particular with regard to the development of the next generation of leadership. janet. >> if you do mine, i'm going to stand up because it is hard for me to do this. >> please. >> thank you. i appreciate it. tonk you so much fear i want express my deep appreciation to our team and polling partners and of course the latino victory fund and to all of the folks appear. we have been supporting a variation of this poll since 2006, and thanks to this history and the groundbreaking work of latino decisions, we believe we have an accurate and comprehensive assessment of our community's vote. the election results were decisive. and now the postmortems have

become. as far as the latino vote is concerned, i believe this election was a lost opportunity .or democrats and seven bracing their records and ou senate democrats either ignored or ran away from us. where our votes could have made a difference, the outreach and mobilization .fforts were anemic this proved costly for them last night. night,cans had a great and i think it is important to note that, but we should also note that most republicans, as demonstrated in the poll, are on the wrong side of the key priorities for latino voters, regardless of the party affiliation. such as immigration, health care, and minimum-wage. for me, the best news of the night is that organizations like nclr and our partners

continue to help eligible latinos naturalize, register, and vote. registered 120,000 new voters this year and contacted more than 300,000 more in states like california, texas, florida, north carolina, iowa, georgia, and colorado. the hispanic electorate continues to grow. while precise numbers will not be available for some time, we expect the latino turnout in 2014 will be larger than the previous term despite the many headwinds we faced in 2014. but i think there are three key takeaways, lessons learned from this election. -- the midterms have come and gone, and the clock has st 2016 race. -- there willt

never again be an electoral map and more importantly an electorate as favorable to the republican party as in 2014. the demographics of the electoral college will come home to roost for republicans. if the republicans continue on this trajectory, i think they will have elected the last president, republican presidents, for the foreseeable future. priorities must be reflected in republican policy positions. number 2 -- to the democrats, lean in. do not take our community for granted. the visible failure of some to stand with the latinos proved

costly. the rest need to embrace, not avoid latino policy and priorities. and number three -- to the president, the election is over. relief to to bring the millions facing deportation family separation. every modern president has used this authority. the hispanic community has waited too long and expects you to fill your promise. for me, i am optimistic. we are headed into an election cycle where our community will have the power to decide who will be the next president of the united states. we take that response ability seriously and we are confident, very confident that our community will act in the best interest of our country. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, henry. thank you, janet.

thanks to gary and matt. we are now going to open it up for q&a, so raise your hand if you're in the room and you want to be called on. if you are watching on a live screen, it should be pretty obvious, there is a submit button you can click on. those onend it in and the team can raise her hand on your behalf to make sure the question gets asked. i am also going to include our other panelists. let's start with erica warner of the associated press. while you wait for the microphone so that people watching on c-span and lifestream can hear your question? >> thank you. for frank and janet, i wonder few can comments given the resounding losses for democrats last night, what are the chances the president will go forward with executive action? >> i do not know what they are talking about, do you? do you want to take the first

crack at that or do you want me to? >> i will comment, but you go first. >> you go first. [laughter] >> ok, all right. look, i believe that the president will act, and i believe that he has a strong foundation on which to act in terms of his legal authority. the case has been made there. but i think in the end, the president understands that in order to get a permanent solution, we need a legislative outcome. republicans i think understand that, too, and i think we want that. but i actually think that the best way to get that legislative outcome is for the president to put a marker down and let the republicans respond. now that they have a majority in both chambers of the congress. if they do not like what the president does because he think that is in the best interest of the country to move forward, guess what?

with their new majorities of both sides of the congress come in both of the chambers, they can now act, and for us as a community, this issue is so important, i think that action to take the step will actually and a permanent solution accelerate a permanent solution, and that will be good for the country, so for us i believe that the president will act because it is in the best interest of the country, and it is in our interest to get a permanent solution. what a better way to spur this new partisan spirit on both sides than to give them a chance to respond? and to let the republicans say we disagree or we don't agree because if they don't agree, let them put their best foot forward on immigration reform, and let's see what they will do. then we will get a great conversation, a great negotiation, and hopefully an ounce them before the president and his presidency.

>> let me just add, sometimes comprehensiveonference of immigration reform or executive action? is a legislative package called comprehensive immigration reform whether it is a comprehensive package that passed the senate on a bipartisan basis in 2013, but the key for us, and this is what you have to listen for when you talk about immigration reform, is the 11 million undocumented immigrants who live and work in america, most of whom have lived here for more than a decade. doesn't include that, or is it a goch of steps where they through the uncomfortable stuff? here is what i hear from a public is when i talk about this issue. the nice ones say border security first, and the mean was say no amnesty, no how. ,wo sides of the same coin

both excuses to not deal with the 11 million, so when the question comes -- a whole bunch of us got arrested this year for comprehensive immigration reform. people in the congress fights -- i have been working on this damn mission for 30 years! the fact is i do not believe for a minute that the republicans are going to do anything on immigration reform. rejected and blocked the best opportunity in a generation to get it done on their terms and to get political credit, and that was before they merged to the right because of the scary 10-year-olds coming from central america. and then the fear mongering that they engaged in on isis and ebola. the idea that the party that has lurched to the right to demagogue to this issue, blocked reform is now going to do reform and work with barack obama to get him a victory on his way out of town is ridiculous! so when i am asked as an

advocate of copperheads of immigration reform for 30 years -- what should the president do? my answer is he should take steps within his legal authority that protect as many people as possible as stepping stones to the day when we have a congress that will pass immigration reform. it is a sequenced approach to immigration reform. i wish congress would have acted, but they haven't, but we are not going to chase this full's errand of republicans. here is the deal about this -- republicans know that if obama acts, it is going to define the two parties with the fastest growing groups of the country for a generation. why you think they are struggling so hard to try to figure out how to stop him? signto us is a very good that they understand what a pickle they have put themselves in, and it is about time for democrats to be democrats, to lean into the issues, to fight for people, to be proud of it, and do not be afraid of a fight.

run to the gunfire instead of avoiding it. i guess i feel strongly about this issue. [laughter] [applause] anol. esp >> i am not going to say all of that en espanol. [speaking spanish] >> quick follow up. >> how could the result of last

night possibly be interpreted as a mandate or a message that he should act in this way? isi think the bigger point he needs to act in the best interest of the country, and as you have heard, quite passionately from frank, you know, republicans had a chance to act. they did not. they had their best chance to act earlier this year. frank may not think they will step forward, but my point is test them out. step ofident taking the administrative action does not stop them from coming forward with a better response and a better reform if they think that is going to be in the best interest of the country, so they can have a chance to put up their best response, which could be a legislative response, and they could see that kind of engagement happen before the president and his term -- ends his term.

the president's action does not stop them from acting. if anything, i think it incentivizes and helps us from a latino standpoint, immigrant standpoint, helps us to accelerate this debate and to accelerate engagement and negotiation around this in a bipartisan way. >> less ask for some -- let's ask for some and then we will switch topics. >> in 2012, the thing that drove latino turnout in democratic share

>> why don't you give us your view from the front lines on what's working, what's not, what needs to happen. >> first of all, thank you, frank, thank you for this great information that you provide to latino victory. what i do know from being on the front lines is that our latino community is ready and

understands the importance of the latino vote. for us, the election of 2016 starts today. our community has indicated in the polls and work that we have done that we are voting for issues rather than candidates and rather than political parties. i believe that the vote taken yesterday by the latino community sends a very clear message. we want actions on our issues. our issues that matter to our community, such as immigration reform, the economy, healthcare, and education. i believe that with the fact the democratic party has lost the leadership and the republicans won this election, victories in

elections have consequences. the republican party now has the responsibility to govern and to provide to the community for the issues that we care. i disagree with some of the comments that i have heard from some of the media saying that the vote was a vote to punish the administration. i hope it's not. in my opinion, the issues the president has to stand on for immigration reform, for equal pay for women, salary increaseses, minimum wage increaseses, those are the issues the community wants. i believe the republican party has an opportunity one more time. you now have the majority. when are you going to come forward for our community? the vote yesterday was more out of frustration than a mandate to

continue punishing our community. [speaking in foreign

>> now let's take a question from our online audience. >> first question is, do the election results represent a loss for the latino community? >> who would like to take that?

>> andy -- >> the way that we look at this in many ways is that, a lot of the work we've been doing, we've been on spanish language television and digital in six different states, some states latino votes provided the margin of victory. but as we look to 2016 -- and we started this in 2012 -- we are building a habit of voting. to latino community that comes out is stronger. the data shows you vote once, you vote twice, it's a habit of voting. from the data we are seeing, more latinos voted in 2014 than in 2010. that will continue, especially once we start seeing the

relatively small but booming populations. not only the large states like colorado where we had double digits in voting by latinos, but some other states are starting to see more influence on elections and all the way down the ballot. so the latino population, large latino voters are having more of a factor in elections. i think key of the castle of winning 2016 and beyond and transferring to the midterms is really with the latino community. i think it's an excellent position to play as key maker in all elections going forward. >> any questions from media in the room? >> hi. thank you for holding the event. on the issue of executive action we were details emerging on what the administration is

considering. we're looking at a requirement -- five to 10 years tossed around, as well as family tie to qualify for deferred action. does that fall short of what advocates are hoping for and looking for from the president? >> yes. [laughter] >> most of us -- docka which was a tremendous success in terms of helping real people and a political move in a tough election season, you know, it was based on the dream act, which had been defeated in a close vote months earlier or late in 2010. we think the senate bill which passed on a bipartisan basis

would be a good template to use for -- it has bipartisan support, has clear criteria who would qualify for legal status. that would be a good basis. it looks unlikely that that will happen. but i think the administration should be well aware that if it goes small, it's going to get as much grief from republicans as if it goes big. if it goes big it will get more love are the immigration reform movement and latino community than if they go small. so we would encourage them to go big and bold and to do it by the end of the year and to include as many people as possible. >> now another question from the live stream. >> a two-parter. at least a couple of people who were engaged in get out to vote drive told me that they were registering more latinos and although hearing about executive action, other issues were bigger

concerns with the people they met during canvassing. so with the polls' findings of smaller democratic support, can you tell me what happened between what canvassers were hearing and the lighter democratic support? the second part. can you review whether you think in some races such as colorado republicans made gains of latino voters? >> let me try -- >> we have a lot of cameras. >> i'll try to answer both with the colorado example. maybe gary can go further. i think that for us, you know, this result in the poll that showed that at least, what, 45% of latinos didn't know that senator udall, his position on immigration. is that a fault of latinos or voters or a fault of the campaign and the candidate? i mean, you know, i think there's a lot of questions to be

raised in all of this and i think there's no question that for us in the latino community, who care about civic engagement, we believe we have to make sure voters are educated on the issues. but campaigns and the parties have a responsibility too and candidates have a responsibility. and if they are not doing their part to educate, you know, key voting constituencies on their positions, that is a failure on the candidate's part more than anything else. so i think there's a lot of responsibility to be taken out there on many fronts, but i think folks need to be looking at what do the campaigns do, what did the parties do, and what did the candidate do to invest and to engage the latino voting blocks in that state. >> if i could bring in the immigration campaign manager,

obviously a multiissue group that does a tremendous amount of canvassing. we'd love to get your take on what you were hearing at doors. >> right before i continue, i want to say thank you for this information, this data. it is very important not only for latinos, how do we move forward, the progressive movement in this community. thank you to latino decision for excellent work. we look forward to what they provide to the latino community and the fund that we work. we did some coordinating work in florida. i just got back from miami. today was a tough day for those that were there working. but i think people like myself and many people at this table, we have been fighting for 30 years, probably a little bit more than that. but we know this fight is long.

we know it's not an easy one. we know that we're going to see casualties along the way like the deportations that we see. it is tough. but that doesn't stop us because we know that the only way out is to continue fighting. so we have learned that this fight not only depend on legislation. we have to every day commit to moving forward and fighting for this one. the message that we receive at the doors by those most likely voters -- it is -- they also want to see action. they want to see those that they have elected cycle after cycle to do. they want to see that there is a clear path as to how they will do it. the latino community -- the latino voters are not just doing this because they are liking one party or candidate. they are following and putting a

lot of attention to the issues. a lot of people were informed about what steps different countries have taken to move forward the issues that they care about. ok? and they know when they have -- they were expressing that at the doors. we think they understand that, they understand the power. but we also think that because the data is showing it and because i saw it at the doors, that we need to do more to reach out. as janet said, we also need to ask the candidates and those political parties that they have to do a lot more to reach to our community. my familia voters have done this for years. we know the people that have been there. with that, those who have been working on multiple issues, but immigration is an important issue because it is an issue of fairness, an issue of equality, an issue of human rights. we'll continue pushing.

yes, immigration reform -- we know that not until we get a legislation we're going to get there. but executive actions must happen. and we have been saying this for almost a year and a half, and we will continue. this election is only going to renew the afl position and continue working on this one not just because it's important to our members and workers. it's because it's the right thing to do. the most valuable thing i will say for the latino community, it is that we know we have to continue pushing, that we'll do it. and you know what? we're not going to elect somebody because they have a d or an r or because whoever -- a relationship. we're going to elect people that are going to fight for the issues that we care, the health, education, immigration reform. the message to the white house is, we need you to act.

that's the afl message. but every single door that i visit in florida, people -- first generation, second generation, they are young voters saying we don't want our parents to be -- continue living in this country with a threat. we don't want threats just because they go to work. we don't want they feeling threat just because we're going to the park. we want freedom. that's how the latino will define how we will continue voting. thank you. >> let me bring you back in. so you were out in colorado. you guys had a huge operating out there -- huge operation out there. what did you hear at the doors? is immigration the -- >> basically the immigration is one of the most important issues to the latino community. we knocked about 70,000 doors and we made about another 150,000 phone calls to their community. and this is an issue that is

important. i just want to if -- the question is what happened between what we were hearing at the doors and what people ended up doing on election day. i agree with janet. our job is to get people out to the polls to continue building the political power. i think we have done that. who wins the elections? i believe that is part of the responsibility of the elected officials, those who want to be elected to let us know why should we vote for them, why not. we have done a lot of talking about what happened in colorado. quite frankly, mr. udall did not embrace our community until a little late in the game. there were people at the door saying i will vote for mr. udall because he is better than the other guy, but not because they understood the issue. we need to look at the latino vote not as a democratic vote. we are part of the society and part of the democracy.

our participation is growing in bigger numbers. so i give a strong recommendation to the political parties and elected officials that if you want our community to vote for yourself and for the political party, you need to reach out to us rather than talk to us. >> terrific. if i could, i want to bring in laura just for a bit of a different perspective. they do a lot of work on a lot of issues but the primary purpose is to motivate latino political participation. and there's some interesting news. could you help us with that? >> thank you for inviting us to be part of this effort. i will say something in addition to what the other groups have been doing. as you know, we have a hot line which we have been running monday and tuesday and we will look at the calls that we receive throughout our call centers across the nation.

we are providing information to latino voters about, you know, where they had questions or where they needed to vote or where they were having issues at the polls. we will be issuing that information shortly. but we -- we like to be the happy voice in this and latino candidates had historic gains last night. we have statewide offices, we have new first latino secretary of state in california, first latino secretary of state in rhode island, we have two new members of congress bringing up our gains on capitol hill to one because we did lose one office. and then we have two latino governors that were re-elected. so the way we see it is obviously the higher up that latinos can go in the chain, the better it is going to be for our community. so when we start seeing the numbers of latino voters that actually turned out at the

polls, we are still encouraged by the fact that latinos are getting elected to those offices and hopefully we can continue to work with them to not only ensure that we're going to have more latinos and we will be coming out with new numbers on other statewide offices that we were monitoring, but how can we develop that talent? so thank you again for us. >> thank you. >> let's take any questions from the room. >> christiano. >> i had a polling question and a question for the audience. on the colorado exit poll, are you seeing a similar phenomenon that you mentioned in texas with the abbott races? they haven't posted anything anywhere. so i was curious to get your take on that for the latino voters. >> we haven't seen them. the colorado exit polls are masked at the subgroup level, at least they were as of when i

left the hotel to come here. are they available now? if they are not, can the journalists in the room please call edison research and find out why we can't see them? >> that's a very important point. there's a large number of latinos in colorado. they should be able to report those results. the fact they have not reported the subgroup results for colorado suggests perhaps they don't have confidence in the results, maybe they don't jive with other things they have seen. there's a lot of polling discussion about colorado. we were weighing in on that. we would hope that they can learn from their mistakes and get the vote correct. but as we pointed out in texas, we know that there's some major inconsistencies. >> the other question -- what do you say to people, leaders who tell latinos not to vote in elections?

does that help or hurt getting out -- passing immigration reform? >> i have a feeling we'll have a consensus on this one. henry, do you want to respond? >> i share optimism that there's a new generation of both candidates and office holders who emerged out of this midterm election. but those who would tell you not to use your voice, not to vote, are dead wrong. and i have negative feelings about the midterm elections because i feel as if our community by not using its voice has delegated the authority for our future to a group of people who clearly do not have our best interests at heart. so by not voting we have representatives now who -- and i wish i was as optimistic as janet on this issue, who i question whether they will take the action necessary to help us with the defining civil rights

and human rights issue of our time. and i think it is right to expect that this president will act boldly through executive action on immigration reform. but i don't think that you can lose sight of who your friends are and who your enemies are. my abuela used to tell me [speaking in spanish]. so by not voting -- >> tell me who you walk with, know who you are. >> you now have a circle of friends who have been elected to congress and who have been elected to the senate who there's a high likelihood do not have your best interests at heart. that is the result of not voting for your own issues. or your own candidates. >> i would just say, look, for us at nclr -- maybe ki only speak for them. i can only speak for nclr.

we were a nonpartisan organization. we have said we just want to grow the vote of our community, we want them to be educated voters. at the end of the day they make that choice. for us, it's really not about supporting one party versus the other. it's about supporting the best candidates who have taken the best position on the issues of importance to the latino community. for us, that will continue to be our goal. i think that if you look at the demographics and the future of this country, it's going to be an important -- it needs to be and imperative for that to be an important part for any candidate who is certainly running for national office. i think that as we see the electoral map change in 2016, it will be an important opportunity for both democrats and republicans -- republicans to respond. >> i have to say this. we've been working very hard to get the latino community to build political power.

i think that it is irresponsible to advise our community otherwise. there's already groups out there trying to stop us from voting bypassing laws that make it harder for us to participate, making laws that makes it harder for us to go out and vote because, i mean, we don't get that. i just believe that it is not in our best interest -- the only way that we will be able to change this immigration issue is by having people that actually can do that. and that is only legislatively. if you don't elect the people that can make those decisions because you let others elect for you, i think that is a disservice to our community and those of us who have been working on this issue of immigration reform we know one thing. without pou political power, we are not going to gain immigration reform. the only way to change is to continue building this. i can

tell you this year my biggest satisfaction is to see those working hard to get the vote out. one said to me, ben, when i got my card able to work, my mom looked at me, said, i would like to have one of those cards in my hands. you know what, brother? he worked very hard to get the vote out because he want to protect his card and he wants his mom to have one. so those who encourage people not to participate, i don't think they are doing us any favors. >> gary. >> i think one of the concerns i would have here is that it's a false choice and the false choice is that you either don't vote or you vote for candidates who aren't taking care of your needs. there is a third choice. and the third choice is primary politics.

that is that, if you have candidates running in the political party that you normally favor who's not taking your interest to heart, then primary them. you may not win. but just simply the fear of primary tends to make politicians do the right thing. and that's a good thing. latinos are not alone in the struggle. there are other groups in the nation and in d.c. environment who are struggling to get the party in which they are a majority participate to pay attention to them. recruit candidates to run against incumbents. you can do that and move the party in your direction. so i agree with everything that folks say. absolutely. when it comes down to it, you've got to vote. but you have to vote more than just in the general election. you have to vote when there's an opportunity to hold even politicians that claim to be on your side accountable. >> excellent. >> all right, any other

questions in the room? go ahead. >> cnn exit polls had colorado latinos comprising 14% of the electorate, which is the same number of latino eligible voters in the state. how accurate do you think this is? >> you know, the exit poll estimates of the election share are just estimates. they are just guesses. they do take into account the census data, take into account whether or not they are seeing more or less of different subgroups filling out their ballots on election day. but those are often revised. what gets posted on election night might look very different two weeks from now when the final votes are in. so those are just estimate parameters. it's not the actual exact number. we have to way for precinct level data. that's the best thing to do. how many votes were cast, did they come from majority latino communities or not. but we don't put a lot of stock

into those estimates. you really need to back them up with real data. >> we'll bring this to a close. if we can, just kind of go down the line. if you want to say one final comment before we close, please do. if you want to pass, that's fine too. let's start with laura. >> i think that we're all going to be saying the same thing. the point is that we need to get out there, we need to continue to vote, we need to make sure that we use the power of our vote to ensure that both parties know that we're watching them and that we want them to take action on the issues that are affecting our community, primarily immigration >> thank you. ben. >> as i said, every election has consequences and victoriries have consequences. i believe the republican party has no excuse but to act in the best interest of our community and the country. if they do not like how the immigration reform is, they need

to put out forward some information and some work that we can do. secondly and finally, i expect and hope that the president act as quickly as possible because we expect relief for community. >> janet. >> i want to make sure i clarify that there's an opportunity here for both parties to engage the latino community and latino voters. and in my opening remarks, if somehow was interpreted that latinos will never vote for republicans, i want to clarify that their policies have to reflect latino priorities if going into the future we're going to see the opportunity for them to grow a constituency of latino voters. i think for us, it's important to note that both parties have that opportunity and they need to take advantage of it. i especially want to reiterate

how important it is for our community to understand that, while we're going to have a unique role, i think, in the next presidential election, it is true that we have to understand our own power and the power of our politics and make sure we're voting in each election because we can make a difference at every >> thank you. gary. >> with respect to the executive action question, there's two reasons presidents do things. one is whether or not it's good policy. the second is whether or not it's good politics. it's a joy when good policy and good politics happen to overhappen. i think the president of the united states -- and do what the policy and politics suggest is in the best interest of his administration and take

>> thank you. matt. >> i'll leave you with a story that is particularly relevant to highlight in our election, findings that relates to latino policies and priorities. that is to contrast the latino vote across these elections like dig durbin who got the highest vote at 81, 81% of the latino vote, someone who has been tirelessly fighting for the dream act, comprehensive immigration reform, for healthcare expansion, other issues important to the latino community. we saw inroads made by someone on the republican side, brian san do val. he invested money into english language learners into the public school system in nevada, signed a driver's permit card and started to do outreach to

latinos. this it is state where latinos voted 90% to harry reid to come back two years later and provide 40% to brian. there was variation across all the candidates. so look at the candidates' policies and you'll be able to understand the latino vote. >> thank you for sponsoring this event as well as being a leader in this effort on the election polling. henry. >> we need to lead ourselves. i agree. this is not a blue issue or red issue. this is a brown issue. and those of you who would take away our voice, take away our vote, we need to say no. this is a moment in our history where we need to realize we live in a country that is not equal and we need to harness our own power and express it. >> randy. >> thank you for the sponsors here.

great work. i appreciate it. you know, i think where altruism fails you must use shame. republicans don't do what's right by looking at the benefits of this policy, we need to use votes to change the folks that are there. i think latino vote in 2016 and going forward has that power and i think it's at the republican's over peril. >> last but not least. >> what i think is that this was important for the latinos, for everybody. i think that it's a clear message from our community we're going to be with those that are voting consistently with those issues that are important to us. as a message for all of those that are elected that they were elected and now they have to act and they have to -- they have to be responsible and respond to the need of the community. but it's also a call for those

who are already in office, for those who made promises. we are watching and we act accordingly how we see people react on the issues we care. a message for the white house. this is important and anybody who has dreams to be in the how's has to deliver the promises they make to us. >> thanks to our speakers and those of you joining us online and through c-span. that closes the event. thank you.

>> lane evans has died. the democratic was a marine from the vietnam era who fought for veterans' rights during his 24 years in the house. he died after a long fight with park inson's disease. he was 6 3. here's what our live coverage looks like today. president obama is going to award the medal of honor today for a civil war, alonzo h. cushing. we'll have live coverage of the ceremony starting at 11:40. john boehner will give his take on the midterm election results. we'll take you live at 1:15 as we talks about what the election means to the house and the republican agenda.

>> we'll take you to stewart rothenberg. he participated this morning in a role called review of the midterm election results. here's a look at what he had to

say. >> i got to feed off you. welcome again to what should be an interesting day. you see an old guy up here with a microphone and i see a lounge in the sands hotel in 1955 as part of the rat pack. that's why i'm using that. i don't have a lot of time and i have a lot of to cover and a lot of interesting people after me, who you want to hear. so i'll run through what happened, why, and look a little bit forward. i'll touch on two or three things that groups later in the day will go into more detail on. what happened, we had a wave election. by the way, if i had known you were going to credit me with those statistics, i would have checked to see if they were right. i just figured, what the heck. no, you are right.

we had a wave election. senate is going to be nine senate seats i believe at the end of the day after the louisiana runoff probably have nine senate seats will slip to the republicans, taking them from 45 to 54. the last house numbers suggested in the teens. the races will be too close to call for weeks probably. but you want to say between 13 and 17. probably somewhere in there. a handful of governorships all went to the republicans. so it was a terrific night. now, there were plenty of surprises. there was one or two races i'm still stunned by them. but the overall outcome should not have shocked you, stunned you, left you -- your mouth open and unbelieving. a very smart person who i

sometimes don't -- don't always but sometimes agree with wrote this on september 8th, i'm now expecting a substantial republican senate wave in november with a net gain of at least seven seats. the combination of an unpoplar president in a midterm can produce disaster elections for the president's party. give ten president's standing, the public's disappoints with the direction of the community, the 2014 senate map, i'm expecting a strong breeze for the g.o.p. if there's a strong breeze, most of the races now regarded as competitive will fall one way, toward republicans. this doesn't happen all the time, but it's far from unusual. right now this article looks like like 2010 when democrats with reasonable profiles got

crushed in republican leaning and swing states. with the president looking weaker, democrats are likely to have a truly burdensome alba trot around their necks. that was written september 8th by someone i often, not always, agree with. me. if i could see that on the horizon, i think most people could see it on the horizon. it's not like i have all these secret power insights other people don't have. what we saw was -- why did this happen? mood. most midterm elections are about mood. it's different from presidential elections which are much more about the two individuals running for office, their qualities, their backgrounds, their preparedness, agendas. midterm elections tend to be on the sitting president, not on

congress. sol maybe the election will be about the house. maybe. but no, because it's never about that. i'm not saying the next election couldn't be that way. but you know this is the black swan theory. we don't have those kinds of elections. midterm elections tend to be about the president and when voters are angry, uncomfortable, nervous, those elections tend to send that message to the president's party. that's exactly what happened. so we had mood. we had the senate states that were up. republican recruiting was quite good. they had strong candidates this time. and then there was turnout. it's a midterm election, folks. that's fundamentally different from a presidential year. different people vote. so i looked at the house national exit poll the other day.

the 2014 electorates to this electorate that turned out tuesday -- i know this comes as a shock, but not everybody votes. what's important to me is who votes, not what the national public opinion is. so i compared 2014 to 2012. the 2014 electorate was more male, older, less liberal, more republicans, wealthier and more said that the country is headed off on the wrong track than the right direction. probably shouldn't surprise you that those voters then voted more republican. it was more than that. in 2012 the exit poll said do you approve or disprove of the job barack obama is doing as president of the united states. the presidential exit poll in 2012 was approve, 53. disapprove, 46. it shocked a lot of us because the national polls did not show an obama job approval in the low

50s. it showed in the mid-to-upper 40s. this time do you approve or disapprove of president obama's job, 44 approved, 55 disapproved. it was a different mood and it delivered a different opinion about the president of the united states. so we had a wave election because the country wanted change. not everybody wanted change. there are people in here that think the president is doing a great job, that the country is headed in the right direction. that doesn't make you wrong. just makes you different than the people who voted. ok? this is simply a matter of opinion. but it's important who votes and what their opinions are. ok, so what does it mean now going forward? can't have much time. i think i'm already over, but i started late. what does it mean going forward?

well, i have rarely found a politician who won an election who didn't think that was some kind of mandate or affirmation of that person's agenda or priorities. i have heard so much analysis in the last -- not analysis. i get press releases from groups claiming they are the reason why either the republicans won or very creative press releases -- or why they are the reason that democrats didn't do even worse. and it's rare you get a politician who says, you know, this wasn't about us at all. it was just about the president. so we don't have a mandate to do anything. so what do i expect? i expect coming out of this election, republicans to overread their, quote/unquote, mandates. not all republicans will do that. many, including many in the leadership, understand their mandate was more like a negative mandate. don't do what the president

wants. do something else. i think the house and senate republican leaders are still going to have problems with the rank and file. now, the republican majority in the house is bigger and that may give speaker boehner more freedom. but don't kid yourself. i know those talk about how the establishment guys won the primaries, so mcconnell knocked off evan, the tea party guy. cochran won, defeating mcdaniel. pat roberts defeated a tea party guy. so the establishment won. but in the house, the chamber and the republican establishment didn't fight as much in these individual races and the electorates are different in house races. so paul brown is leaving from georgia.

a very libertarian, anti-establishment, anti-his own party establishment, republican congressman from georgia being replaced with joedi, michelle balk man is leaving, but tom emmer, a male version of michelle balk man. boehner is going to have to tread carefully. in the senate i have three big question marks and their names are dan sullivan, ben, tom cotton. they are all smart and thoughtful, but i'm not sure where they fit in the question of what is your role as a legislator. how do these people see their roles? is it to come here and we're part of a diverse institution

and represent different constituents and we need to compromise or is it we've been compromising for the last 50 years, we're conservative republicans, they tell us they'll shrink government, we're tired of compromising. what will they do? the reason i picked those three is all three were endorsed by the club for growth, the economic libertarian group. the club is enthusiastic about them. the club tends to support candidates who view principal over pragmatism. i met with all three. i could see them going either way. i don't know how they will behave. it will be interesting. but if they joined a ted cruz, mike lee kind of -- let's call them -- this is a neutral term i have just come up with in the

last eight seconds. let's call them the troublemaker caucus in the senate. that would make things very difficult for mitch mcconnell. so i think there are lots of questions. i'm rather skeptical that the republicans that now have the -- that they will be able to get on the same page. they will on some things. it will be interesting to see the relationship with the president. finally and then i'll stop. did the president get the message? probably not. you know, bill clinton got the message after 94, i think. he made it clear that he was upset that people didn't like him and he wanted to be where people were. i think this president is confident that he knows where the country should go, must go, and he's right about that. the coke brothers spent a lot of money and a lot of people didn't

vote. i don't expect a lot more flexible out of the white house. i think congress will continue to be a -- i think washington will continue to be a place where it's difficult to get things done. some stuff will get done. lord knows we haven't gotten a lot of stuff done, but the economy has -- it's not growing fast enough. i agree. but it has improved. but it's still going to take a lot of effort to get things done, a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm and goodwill. i'm going to say let's keep our fingers crossed. now i turn this over to you,

david. >> we are live at the white house as president obama will award the medal of honor to a civil war soldier, first lieutenant alonzo cushing for his actions as a commanding officer at the battle of the gettysburg, particularly the third day in helping to take

>> we're live at the white house waiting for president obama who will award posthumous the medal of honor to civil war soldier, first lieutenant alonzo cushing

for his actions at the battle of gettysburg. the army times writing that kushing wasn't just any participant. he commanded an artillery battery -- the spot where alonzo cushing died would become known as the high water mark of the southern cause. in the article they say that refusing to evacuate despite his wounds, he continued to fire into the face of the enemy. the white house said with the rebels within 100 yards, alonzo cushing was shot and killed. his actions made it possible for the army to successfully repulse the confederate assault. of the 300,487 men and women who have received the medal of honor, 644 have been awarded the honor posthumous. none has received a medal of honor longer after death than alonzo cushing.

the ceremony should get under way shortly here at the white house. president obama tomorrow will meet with a number of congressional officials ahead of the beginning next week of the lame duck session after the midterm elections on tuesday. and this weekend the president leaves for an asia trip, including his visit to china.

>> they announced it will be a two-minute start. a bit of a delay. the white house announced in august the awards of the medal of honor. the announcement capped a four-decade-long campaign while margaret soric from cushing's hometown who lobbied the

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>> 151 years after the battle of gettysburg. lt alonso pushing died in the known as what was pickett's charge.