LILBURN。-随着佐治亚州进入决定美国参议院控制权的两个关键决胜阶段，民主党人希望依靠拉丁裔选民，他们在11月份帮助该州扭转了局面。

但唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)总统在该国部分地区赢得的西班牙裔选票超过预期，令民主党人感到不安，这引发了人们对民主党人在多大程度上可以依赖这个全国最大的少数群体作为其联盟的基石的疑问。

今年1月，美国共和党参议员大卫·濮培德和凯利·雷夫勒与民主党挑战者乔恩·奥索夫和拉斐尔·沃诺克之间的对决，将是对这个拉丁美洲人口超过100万的州的下一次实力考验。

民主党人希望确保拉丁裔再次出现，在他们的竞选中强调移民和新冠肺炎救济。共和党人希望削弱民主党在一个年轻且快速增长的社区中的优势，重申特朗普对劳动人民强劲经济的强调，并摒弃他们所说的民主党人对社会主义的拥抱。

越来越多的拉丁美洲人的兴趣和参与在一定程度上是由拉丁美洲社区的政治组织的兴起所推动的，这些组织已经接触到了像阿纳耶利·莫雷诺这样的选民，他是盖恩斯维尔的居民，也是墨西哥移民的女儿。

“我真的是在一个没有听说过政治的地方长大的，”莫雷诺说，“在家里谈论政治并不常见。”

莫雷诺说，在亚特兰大东北部的一个小城市，移民们的斗争是驱使她去投票的主要动力。在这个州，反对非法移民的情绪往往很强烈。

“我们没有注意到它影响我们生活的方方面面，”莫雷诺说，他是佐治亚家庭联盟的志愿者，该组织为家庭提供新冠肺炎援助，并鼓励他们投票。“不管你在做什么，我们的生活都受到政策的影响。”

24岁的莫雷诺正处于格鲁吉亚新兴拉丁裔政治的最佳位置。根据人口普查数据，这是一个年轻的社区，平均年龄在20多岁。20世纪90年代，随着1996年亚特兰大奥运会的到来，说西班牙语的人开始大量涌入格鲁吉亚。

超过三分之一的社区小于18岁；研究社区的人说，大约三分之一的人是非法入境的成年人。根据人口普查数据，许多能够投票的人都是年轻人，每年大约有2万名佐治亚州的拉美裔人年满18岁。

美联社的Votecast调查发现，11月份佐治亚州500万选民中有3%是拉丁裔，其中60%投票给拜登，30%投票给特朗普。拜登在拉丁裔人中的36000张选票是他在该州总票数的两倍多。

埃默里大学(Emory University)教授伯纳德·弗拉加(Bernard Fraga)和自由派选民分析组织加泰罗尼亚(Catalist)的分析显示，在佐治亚州，足够大的拉美裔公民投票率从2016年的33%上升到今年的42%。加泰罗尼亚中心的首席研究科学家乔纳森·罗宾逊(Jonathan Robinson)表示，拉美裔选民的投票率比全州范围内的投票率都要高，他称这是参议院决胜投票的“好迹象”。

自1992年以来，第一次民主党总统选举胜利不仅仅是拉丁美洲人的功劳。还需要大量的黑人选民，一大群放弃传统共和党倾向和亚洲选民大力支持的白人郊区居民。但是拉丁裔选民可能是奥索夫和沃诺克足以获胜的联盟的一部分。

“格鲁吉亚不再只是黑与白。格鲁吉亚是多语言和多民族的，”吉吉·佩德拉扎说，他是格鲁吉亚拉丁裔社区基金的执行主任，该基金帮助动员了拉丁裔选民。

这一变化于周一在利尔伯恩展出，利尔伯恩是格温内特县的一个郊区。奥索夫和美国前住房和城市发展部长朱利安·卡斯特罗敦促人们在拉斯美洲广场(Plaza Las Americas)的集会上登记和投票，这是一个为讲西班牙语的人服务的购物中心。

随着民主党的浪潮席卷新官员，拜登在格温内特县轻松获胜，其中包括一名新警长，他承诺结束一项检查被捕人员状况的项目，并将非法移民移交给移民和海关执法局进行驱逐。

这只是共和党官员采取政策打击非法移民的一个例子。佐治亚州拉丁裔民选官员协会首席执行官杰里·冈萨雷斯(Jerry Gonzalez)指出，现任共和党州长布赖恩·坎普(Brian Kemp)在2018年播出了一则电视广告，称他驾驶着“一辆大卡车，以防我需要抓捕非法犯罪分子并亲自带他们回家”。

“佐治亚州是一个对移民怀有敌意的州，”冈萨雷斯说，这表明共和党人很难突破到拉丁美洲人。“如果你说的是那种程度的修辞，那么拉丁美洲人真的没有兴趣听你说的其他任何东西。”

然而，共和党人并没有放弃。杰森·阿纳维塔尔特(Jason Anavitarte)今年是特朗普的国家拉丁裔顾问，并作为共和党人赢得了亚特兰大西北的州参议院席位。他说，特朗普在全国和佐治亚州的拉美裔选民中的份额越来越大，这不是“雷达上的一点点”，但表明特朗普的经济信息吸引了社区。

“并不是所有的拉丁美洲人都关心移民，”具有波多黎各血统的阿纳维塔尔说。“我认为他们关心的是什么会直接影响他们的家庭。他们关心找工作，是什么影响了他们孩子的教育。"

玛利亚·德尔·罗萨里奥·帕拉西奥斯说，新冠肺炎的反应是拉丁美洲人的一个关键问题。玛利亚·德尔·罗萨里奥·帕拉西奥斯成立了佐治亚家庭联盟，为养鸡场和其他地方不能在家工作的工人提供个人防护设备。

帕拉西奥斯说，她看到了对额外选举的许多困惑，这是格鲁吉亚提出的一项要求，可能会让没有经验的选民感到困惑。

帕拉西奥斯说:“人们并不真的明白会有决胜。“他们说‘不，不，不，我在11月投票。“我很好，”"

莫雷诺也有这种担心，但她说，她对自己看到的参与程度感到惊讶，并认为选举可能是拉丁美洲政治权力提升的机会。

莫雷诺说:“我理解有些人觉得投票不会有什么影响。“是小小的几步让我们到达了某个地方。更多的人在11月出来投票，这产生了巨大的影响。”

Rising Latino voters could be force in Georgia Senate races

LILBURN, Ga. -- As Georgia heads into two key runoffs that will determine control of the U.S. Senate, Democrats are hoping to count on Latino voters who helped tilt the state blue in November.

But President Donald Trump rattled Democrats by winning larger-than-expected shares of Hispanic votes in parts of the country, raising questions about how much Democrats can rely on the nation’s largest minority group as a cornerstone of their coalition.

The January runoffs between Republican U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler and Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock will be the next test of strength in a state with a growing Latino population of more than 1 million.

Democrats want to make sure Latinos turn out again, emphasizing immigration and COVID-19 relief in their campaigns. Republicans want to cut Democrats’ advantage in a youthful and rapidly growing community, reprising Trump’s emphasis on a strong economy for working people and spurning what they describe as Democrats’ embrace of socialism.

Increasing Latino interest and participation has been fed in part by an upswell of political organizing in Latino communities that has reached voters like Anayely Moreno, a Gainesville resident and the daughter of Mexican immigrants.

“I really grew up in a place where I didn’t hear about politics,” Moreno said “It wasn’t common to talk about politics at home.”

Moreno said the struggles of immigrants in her small city northeast of Atlanta, in a state where sentiment against illegal immigration has often been harsh, is the prime motivator driving her to the ballot box.

“We don’t notice all the ways it affects every aspect of our lives,” said Moreno, who volunteers with Georgia Familias Unidas, a group that offers COVID-19 assistance to families and encourages them to vote. “No matter what you’re doing, our lives are affected by policy.”

Moreno, at 24, is in the sweet spot for Georgia’s emerging Latino politics. It’s a young community, with the median age in the late 20s, according to census figures. Spanish speakers began arriving in large numbers in Georgia in the 1990s, drawn by the boom coinciding with the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

More than a third of the community is younger than 18; about another third are adults in the country illegally, those who study the community say. Many of those who can vote are young adults, with about 20,000 Georgia Latinos turning 18 each year, according to census figures.

AP’s Votecast survey found that 3% of Georgia’s 5 million voters in November were Latino and 60% of them voted for Biden, versus 30% for Trump. Biden's 36,000-vote margin among Latinos was more than double his overall winning margin in the state.

Turnout of Latino citizens old enough to vote in Georgia increased from 33% in 2016 to 42% this year, according to an analysis by Emory University professor Bernard Fraga and Catalist, a liberal-leaning group that does voter analysis. Jonathan Robinson, a lead research scientist with Catalist, said that turnout among Latinos increased more than turnout statewide, calling it a “good sign” for voting in the Senate runoffs.

Latinos weren’t solely responsible for the first Democratic presidential victory in Georgia since 1992. Also needed were a large number of Black voters, a chunk of white suburbanites who abandoned traditional Republican leanings and strong support from Asian voters. But Latino voters could be part of a coalition just big enough for Ossoff and Warnock to win.

“Georgia is no longer only Black and white. Georgia is multilingual and multiethnic,” said Gigi Pedraza, executive director of Georgia’s Latino Community Fund, which has helped mobilize Latino voters.

The change was on display Monday in Lilburn, a suburb in sprawling Gwinnett County. Ossoff and former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro urged people to register and vote in a rally at Plaza Las Americas, a shopping center catering to Spanish speakers.

Biden romped in Gwinnett County as a Democratic tide swept in new officials, including a new sheriff who pledges to end a program that checks the status of arrested people and turns those here illegally over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation.

That’s just one example of policies adopted by Republican officials to crack down on immigrants in the country illegally. Jerry Gonzalez, CEO of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, noted that current Republican Gov. Brian Kemp aired a television ad in 2018 saying he drove “a big truck in case I need to round up criminal illegals and take them home myself.”

“Georgia is a hostile state toward immigrants,” Gonzalez said, indicating it’s hard for Republicans to break through to Latinos. “If you’re talking in that level of rhetoric, then Latinos really don’t have any interest in listening to anything else you’re talking about.”

Republicans aren’t giving up, though. Jason Anavitarte was a national Latino adviser to Trump this year and won a state Senate seat northwest of Atlanta as a Republican. He said Trump's increasing share of the Latino vote nationally and in Georgia was not a “blip on the radar" but indicated that Trump's economic message appealed to the community.

“Not all Latinos care about immigration,” said Anavitarte, who is of Puerto Rican descent. “I think they care about what is directly impacting them in their home. They care about finding a job, what is impacting their kids' education."

The COVID-19 response is a key issue among Latinos, said Maria del Rosario Palacios, who founded Georgia Familias Unidas to give personal protective equipment to workers at chicken plants and elsewhere who can't work from home.

Palacios said she sees a lot of confusion over the additional election, a requirement Georgia imposes that can be baffling to inexperienced voters.

“Folks don’t really understand there is a runoff,” Palacios said. “They say ‘No, no, no, I voted in November. I’m good.’”

Moreno shares that fear but said she’s surprised by the level of engagement she sees and believes the election could be a chance for Latino political power to advance.

“I understand when some people feel like voting won’t make a difference,” Moreno said. “It’s small steps that get us somewhere. More people came out to vote in November and that made a huge difference.”