While I wish we did not need the VRA and to protect minority voters. the bottom line is we still have discrimination in this countrya fact illustrated by the Supreme Courts Texas redistricting decision. My public service began before some of you were bornnot that Im happy to admit that. My first campaign was 1964. the last election year before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 abolished literacy tests and poll taxesboth components of a time when one segment of this Nation could diminish the voting strength of other entire segments of this Nation. My mother took out a $1.000 loana fortune for a migrant family in 1964to bankroll my first campaign. The money was mostly to help offset the poll tax for Hispanic voters. whose priority was putting food on the table for their families. We have improved our democracy since then. but our civil tone in political debates has coarsened.
Identified stereotypes
Hispanic voters' priority was putting food on the table for their families.