This story was reported and written by VPM News.
Editor’s note: Some of the interviews for this story were conducted in Spanish and translated into English.
A week after Donald Trump was declared president-elect, Beato Ortiz Hernández drove from Chesterfield to Arlington to meet with community leaders and discuss what the election results could mean for Latino and Indigenous communities.
Across the nation, 55% of Latino voters supported Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. But Trump was backed by 43% of Latino voters — up from 35% when he ran against President Joe Biden in 2020, according to exit polling from The Associated Press. And Latino men, who voted for Biden by a 59–38 margin four years ago, split nearly evenly, 49–48 in favor of Harris.
Ortiz Hernández, who immigrated from Mexico to the United States at 15, is a U.S. citizen. He’s embedded into the Greater Richmond community as a leader, organizer and successful small business owner with three restaurants and a newly opened tortilla factory.
“Even though I already have my business,” Ortiz Hernández said, “I don't forget my people. I know there are more people coming up who want the same opportunities for themselves. That is why I cannot turn my back on my migrant community.”
Ortiz Hernández said he felt he had to compromise on issues relating to the economy and same-sex marriage to vote for a Democrat this election.
“But even then, I voted in favor of Kamala,” he said. “Because separating families is something cruel.”
Ortiz Hernández isn’t the only one who chose to vote with community in mind this year.
Josue Castillo, who works with immigrant and working-class families as a New Virginia Majority community organizer, voted for Harrison Roday to be Richmond’s next mayor. (Roday finished third in the race for mayor, with just over 13% of the vote. Dr. Danny Avula secured the majority of votes in six of Richmond’s nine council districts — enough to secure the city’s top job, which requires winning a majority of districts, not total votes.)
Castillo said Roday, who was endorsed by New Virginia Majority, was the candidate willing to “put their money where their mouth is” to solve Richmond’s housing crisis.
“I was impressed that he did take time to meet with our tenants who are struggling,” Castillo said. “I admired the way that he took the time to hear all of their stories, to treat them like people, and he promised that he would deliver on helping our tenants achieve better housing.”
Castillo, the son of Honduran immigrants and the first person in his family born in the United States, voted for Harris too — but said he wasn’t surprised by a record-setting number of Latinos voting for Trump.
“We are very diverse when it comes to opinions, when it comes to different needs for our communities,” he said. “I think there's a tendency to believe that all Latinos support Democrats; however, we saw that in this election, that wasn't the case.”
Castillo added that candidates should focus their efforts on effective outreach and active listening to earn the vote instead of relying on Latino communities to vote blue.
“I try to vote for the people in my family who can't. And I would say that's a common sentiment I see with people my age,” Castillo said. “We see it as making the choice for the people in our family or the people in our lives who don't have that choice.”
The 2024 election was Hanover County resident Dayana Bjorkman's first chance to cast a ballot after becoming a naturalized citizen in the spring.
“I feel super proud. I am Latina. I am from Colombia and being able to vote was an enriching experience to be part of such a fundamental process for democracy,” Bjorkman said.
When researching each candidate, Bjorkman said she focused on their plans for education, finance and social issues — areas she believes impact collective well-being.
“My priority was making sure that my voice was heard and always respecting the different political positions,” Bjorkman said. “In my home country, we are not clinging to the Democratic or Republican Party. We are more about the candidate.”
Bjorkman declined to share who she voted for with VPM News. She explained that this was a normal practice in Colombia, where voters would fold their ballots into tiny squares because simply exercising the right to vote could generate conflict.
She said she believes every vote strengthens democratic institutions, regardless of who the vote is for: “I have great faith in the future. I want to contribute my grain of sand.”
Richmond resident Isaiah Cabino is most concerned about the rising cost of living in Richmond. He voted for Andreas Addison for mayor, because his policy proposals focused on reducing housing costs. (Addison finished fourth in the race, with just over 11% of the vote.)
“I saw 2024 as almost like a fork in the road for our city, on a local level,” Cabino said. Not electing a mayor or city councilors with “the right agendas and right experience for addressing housing and transportation and efficiency of the local government” would have “massive effects going forward.”
Kimberly Melendez — who was born in the U.S. and raised by a single mother who immigrated from El Salvador — echoed the sentiments of voting with family in mind. She voted for Harris for president and Michelle Mosby for Richmond’s mayor. (Mosby finished second in the race for mayor, with just over 25% of the vote.)
“Representation matters so much,” Melendez said. “I feel like Kamala could have given little girls and and boys hope of, like, ‘OK, I may be Black or Hispanic or Indian, but I can be president of the United States if I want to. I can reach that level of success.’ It doesn't have to be, you know, a white male that holds the power.”
Melendez said representation also means having someone in office who is a good influence. She worries about how Trump’s behavior and rhetoric will influence others, and what Project 2025 — a policy blueprint for a second Trump administration written by the conservative Heritage Foundation — will mean for people of color and women.
”Honestly, I'm scared to read it. It just makes me feel like we're going backwards, and it's really scary, especially for women, the LGBTQ community, I just feel like we're not safe with him in office,” she said.
In the eyes of Jo-Ann Chase, a Loudoun County resident, there is no one better for the Oval Office than Trump: “I know that he was the anointed one that God wanted for us.”
Chase, who was born in Puerto Rico, has been a loyal Trump supporter since he announced his first presidential bid in 2015.
“They tried to kill him twice. They sued him, they attacked his family, they tried to impeach him. They've done everything bad that they could do, and the man has stood firm and focused on God, family and country, on doing what's right for the American people. And all that has been a total success,” Chase said.
Chase believes the rising number of Latinos voting for Trump is due to them better understanding his message, which she said they didn’t back in 2016. (Trump was backed by 28% of Latino voters, according to a CNN exit poll.)
Trump’s responsibility as commander-in-chief is to protect Americans from enemies abroad and within, Chase said. She is in favor of all of Trump’s proposed immigration policies, which includes securing the border and mass deportations. “His message was to ensure that only people that were coming into this country to respect our laws and our rules were allowed into the country.”
According to data from the American Immigration Council, Virginia is home to over 1 million immigrants — including 227,100 who lack permanent legal status.
One thing that worries Cabino is Trump’s looming threat of denaturalization, which would revoke naturalized citizenship. That could impact his family, many of whom immigrated from El Salvador and went through the naturalization process to become U.S. citizens.
“What's more important for me right now is family and friends who are not quite yet citizens, have the pathways to become citizens — and don't have threats of denaturalization because of the origin of their nation or the color of their skin,” Cabino said.
At the national level, Cabino was looking for candidates who would cross aisles and focus on housing, transportation, climate change, reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights: “For me, that was basically just the Democrats who were offering those solutions this election.”
Now that Democrats have lost control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, Ortiz Hernández said it’s up to communities to organize and find solutions. Trump has promised to launch “the largest deportation program of criminals in the history of America.”
Ortiz Hernández said he is trying his best to remain positive and hopeful that this common Latino saying proves true: “Perro que ladra no muerde” — a dog that barks doesn’t bite.
“Donald Trump has already said the same thing before, eh? That he was going to deport 11 million immigrants,” he said. “He didn't. He didn’t even complete the wall — he only did a part of it.”
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