Poll Finds Latino Voters Concerned About Mississippi River Health and Environment

A new poll finds that Latino voters who live near the Mississippi River appreciate the river and are concerned about pollution.

The survey, conducted by the Hispanic Access Foundation, an advocacy group, shows that this community cares deeply about the environment and is fighting for policy changes.

The results showed that Latino voters living in states bordering the Mississippi River love the river; 63% said they do activities on or near the river, and 51% value its mental health benefits.

The Latino voters surveyed in this study lived in riverfront counties in all ten states along the Mississippi River: Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.

Ninety-one percent said they support potential congressional policies to create new national parks, monuments, or wildlife refuges to protect outdoor recreation areas. Eighty-three percent described the Mississippi River as a national treasure, and 52 percent said they felt a responsibility for it.

The study included only registered voters, which does not necessarily include undocumented residents, who also make up a portion of the basin’s Latino population.

“I think it’s a big part of a voice that we’re missing,” said Magali Rojas, an environmental justice advocate in Kansas City. “So it’s bigger than we know, and it’s bigger than we realize.”

Advocates say the findings are important because Mississippi River communities face unique challenges, such as compromised water quality and invasive species. The authors hope the findings will help communities advocate for their needs and demonstrate to decision makers that they care about the environmental impacts on their communities.

“We wanted to highlight Latino perspectives,” said Vanessa Muñoz, director of waterways at the Hispanic Access Foundation. “We often get left out of conversations when it comes to policy changes.”

Muñoz said the results illustrate the power Latino voters in the region could have in the upcoming presidential election. Fifty percent said their states were on the wrong track. Forty-five percent said they favored presidential candidate Donald Trump, while 34 percent favored Kamala Harris.

On policy issues, 56% said taking action to restore the Mississippi River should be a top priority for their state.

The results concluded that Latino voters in the region prefer members of Congress who ensure the protection of public lands even at the expense of oil and gas production. Seventy-four percent of Latinos surveyed support the international effort called “30×30,” which sets a goal of conserving 30 percent of land and water by 2030. The Biden administration has committed to this effort.

Seventy-four percent of respondents were also concerned about pollution of rivers, lakes, and streams. Concerns about microplastics, garbage, chemical waste, and PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” in the Mississippi River were even more concerning. Eighty-six percent believed PFAS posed a significant threat to the Mississippi River.

“The polling has taught us that the Latino vote is growing. So we see a concern for conservation in Latino communities, whether it’s for environmental justice, whether it’s a spiritual connection, whether it’s something that’s just relevant to them because of the health impacts,” Rojas said.

Muñoz added that conservation efforts should take note of the findings, saying they “would do much better if they made a greater effort to engage and help remove the barriers that prevent Latinos from uniting and becoming passionate advocates for the river.”

The findings mirror those of a similar survey of the general population in the same 10 Mississippi River Basin states, conducted last year by the University of Missouri in partnership with the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk. Most of the people surveyed in that study were concerned about environmental problems, extreme weather, pollution and land development in the watershed.

The survey data focusing on Latinos are available in English and Spanish.

This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Deskan independent information network based at University of Missouri in collaboration with Report for Americawith major funding from the Walton Family Foundation. The Hispanic Access Foundation and their Latino survey are also funded by Walton.