From Politic365 June 12, 2012:
In San Antonio, Texas Sylvia Romo’s loss to Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett in a recent primary dashed the hopes that Texas would elect its first ever Latina to Congress. Romo entered the race for the 35th congressional district and was favored to win before Doggett, whose district’s Democratic base was diluted in redistricting, sought the nomination for the San Antonio-based and largely minority district.
Despite its large and historic Latino population, Texas has never had a Latina congresswoman; California currently has four Latinas serving in the House. California, with 14 million Latinos, and Texas, with 9.4 million, both have Latino populations of about 38% of their respective populations. While there are just 24 Latino and Latina congresswomen currently serving, according to 2011 figures from the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed officials (NALEO), only seven are women. Four of them are from California, one from Florida, Washington state, and one from New York.
It’s a given that 24 Latino reps is a gross underrepresentation of the Hispanic population nationally, which constitutes 16% of the nation, but when even an underrepresentation underrepresents women, you have to wonder why.
