YAKIMA COUNTY, Wash.- The 2024 election season will have a new look to the 14th Legislative District. The newly drawn map runs from Glenwood to parts of Pasco, including the lower valley cities of Toppenish, Wapato and Sunnyside, while also incorporating parts of Yakima and Benton and Franklin Counties.
The new map gives a new voice to the Latino and Hispanic population of the district, who were unfairly cut out of previous district maps.
“Over the many decades, we’ve noticed there has been a pattern to where the commissions or the folks that draw the districts either intentionally or unintentionally cut through many of the Hispanic or Latino communities that are here in Central Washington,” says Latino Community Fund’s Policy Organizer Giovanni Severino.
The Latino Community Fund and other local organizations fought back against the maps, seeing it lowered the chance of Latino candidates of winning to “virtually impossible,” according to Severino.
Now, the chance for new ideas from their own communities is a real possibility, and one that is re-energizing Latinx voters.
“I feel loke more folks will turn out to vote in this upcoming election and in the general election,” says Severino. “We see folks from our communities that are younger. No offense to the other folks, but it’s definitely time for new ideas in Olympia from our area.”
The Latino Community Fund says the organization has been working to educate more voters about the new district map, and how it has changed the importance of their votes.
Severino emphasized that the votes aren’t only for new representation, but also for policies that affect people on a daily basis.
“The economy,” says Severino about upcoming bills that could impact District 14. “It’s been impacting all of us, not just across the nation, but locally as well. Some of our state policies do influence our local economies. Voting new policies and ideas going to Olympia from our region would impact that hopefully in a positive way.”
He also lists education and transportation bills as upcoming votes to keep an eye on.
Having a renewed connection to the 14th District candidates means a lot for the voters, who will have a chance to elect someone who knows the issues they face.
“It’s been the same consistent views that have led the way for many, many decades,” says Severino. “I feel any time any of our communities would suggest something different or taking a different direction on how to educate our communities…Do you know how many times we weren’t necessarily considered in that conversation? Now we have new, younger, energized candidates running out of this area who understand how these polices have impacted us in the past.”
