Liberal in Kansas is the newest melting pot of the United States, a Dust Bowl enclave that is situated on the Oklahoma border and is a reflection of the Democrats’ greatest chance of being able to strengthen its grip on presidential elections in the future.
There are 23,027 people in the town, which had the largest percentage of foreign born residents in 2011 in the country, according to statistics from the American Community Survey taken by the US Census Bureau. One in four residents of Liberal is an immigrant born outside of the United States, a bigger percentage than McAllen in Texas, which is situated on the border to Mexico, or Miami and New York.
Liberal shows how, even in states that have been the most reliably Republican, the party is facing peril due to shifting demographics and their inability to gain support from the 52 million Hispanics in the United States. The biggest minority group was able to give 71% of its votes to President Barack Obama on the 6th November.
“There’s a lot of restlessness with people who are ready for a change, and this is the moment,” says the Executive Director of immigration reform advocacy group Sunflower Community Action, Sulma Arias. “Fifty thousand Latino students become eligible to vote in this country every month. This is the future of Kansas, and this is the future of America.”
Although Mitt Romney scored 60% of the state’s vote, the move in influence was obvious in other states such as Colorado, Virginia and Nevada and the changes are only going to continue to come.