Progress Illinois

As Congress works toward the final stages of an immigration reform plan, a new issue brief from the Center for American Progress explores how immigration and the growing Latino population could impact the future political landscape in key states.

Immigration issues among Latino voters were crucial in swinging the 2012 presidential election.

And the rapid growth and voting power of the Latino population also ensured key swing states such as Florida, Colorado and Nevada voted for the current Democratic president, according to the brief.

Key states such as Arizona and North Carolina are also reaching demographic tipping points that could shift the states reliably blue, said Philip Wolgin, senior policy analyst for immigration at the Center for American Progress.

“These are states that are becoming swing states in a way that I think nobody really envisioned would have happened in the past,” he said.

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Obama’s negative defining of Romney early in the 2012 presidential campaign was a key factor in the 2012 election, three top Obama and Romney TV ad staffers said at a panel discussion held Tuesday night at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics.

Panel members from both sides of the aisle agreed that using a disciplined tone toward a highly skeptical public was a key strategy of their paid television advertising. For Obama’s campaign a tone of authenticity was used for positive advertisements, while Romney’s campaign said it used language that suggested Obama’s presidency had been a disappointment, but not quite a failure, economically.

“We could tell with voters, they were disappointed with Obama, but they still liked him,” said Ashley O’Connor, director of advertising for Romney for President.

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