For more than three decades, the state House districts that have covered the region of Holland in West Michigan have regularly elected Republicans. But that could be changing as the area's Latino electorate emerges as a key voting bloc.
Currently, it’s Michigan’s 86th State House District that covers a swathe of Holland and the surrounding area, including parts of Allegan and Ottawa counties.
On a recent Sunday afternoon, 53-year-old Marilyn Sierra stood in a long line outside of the Holland Civic Center.
“I’m here to give Mr. Abdul a chance,” she said.
Sierra was one of hundreds of Latinos that day hoping for a chance to hear Univision’s longtime lead news anchor, Jorge Ramos, interview Democratic U.S. Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
Sierra is originally from Puerto Rico but has been living in Holland for the last 14 years. She said she works just over 40 hours per week making airplane parts at a local factory.
Since moving to Michigan, she said, she’s always voted Republican, but this year she’s considering casting her ballot for the Democratic Party for the first time.
“I have a 4-year-old grandson, a 4-year-old granddaughter and an 11-month granddaughter,” she said. “I just don’t see a future for them [where] they can buy a house if they’re not, like, a doctor.”.
In the decade-plus that Sierra has been living in Holland, the demographics of the area have been changing. Latinos are now a substantial part of the voting population here.
Like other registered voters, Latinos rank the economy as their top issue in the 2026 midterms.
This is top of mind for Sierra when heading to the polls this November.
She said she’s been hit hard by the increase in grocery and gas prices.
“My groceries, my gas, my paycheck,” she said. “What I’m spending now for gas just to go to work is too much.”
For 20-year-old Kimberly Maldonado, there’s no question that El-Sayed has her vote, but she said she’s not sure how she will vote in her local state House race.
“I think I still need to continue doing research, but I am planning to vote Democrat overall, just because a lot of their beliefs align with my own,” she explained.
Maldonado could be a key vote in the 86th State House District because the seat is a competitive one for the first time in decades.
Currently the seat is occupied by former Holland mayor Nancy DeBoer after beating the Democratic candidate by about 12 percentage points last election. While DeBoer has name recognition after a long history in city government, her Democratic challenger, Joseph McClusky, has been gaining ground in the area over his stances on lowering the cost of living and expanding healthcare access.
Like the large majority of Latino voters across the country, Maldonado, an aspiring physician assistant, said she’s concerned about the costs of healthcare.
“There could be a little reform with healthcare in Holland,” Maldonado added.
She would like to see a greater number of low-cost healthcare clinics in the area.
Meanwhile, 64-year-old Alfonso Barajas has already made up his mind. He considers himself a life-long Democrat and said President Donald Trump’s immigration policies are what’s driving him to the polls.
“This is kind of the worst I've ever experienced in my life,” he said. “What's going on in our country is so ugly — all this ugliness against people of color — and we just got to get him out of office.”
While not the top consideration, immigration remains a key topic for Latinos this election.
Holland has long been known as the cultural center of Michigan’s Dutch immigrant community, but the House district including the city is now also home to one of Michigan’s most concentrated Latino populations.
“Compared to all the other districts in the Michigan State House, it’s very, very Latino,” said Eric Gonzalez Juenke, an associate professor of political science at Michigan State University whose research focus includes the Latino electorate.
He said in places like Holland, a younger Latino population is increasingly reshaping the electorate as the older generation of Dutch immigrant voters declines.
“That’s how you get a seat to flip, is you have a substantively large group, like Latinos,” he said. “They are swingy, so they can change their votes, and if we see a surge in turnout in this group we could expect that this is going to make a big difference in the race.”
Historically, Latino voters have tended to favor the Democratic Party over the Republican Party, but that support has waned since 2022.
According to data from the Pew Research Center, in 2022 Latinos backed Democrats over Republicans by a 21-percentage-point margin, a drop of more than 20 points from 2018.
While exit polls from the 2024 presidential election showed the majority of Latinos in Michigan voted for Trump, that might not be a good indicator of how this group will vote in the midterms.
A Pew-conducted survey of more than 700 Latino registered voters found that the majority of them view their vote in this midterm election as one against Trump, although the president is not on the ballot.
“Definitely in the last 10 years, we’ve seen that this group is much, much more likely to be up for grabs if the parties are willing to put in the work,” Juenke said.
So far, both candidates running in the 86th State House District, DeBoer and McClusky, are reaching voters in English and Spanish — efforts Juenke said he’s expecting to see replicated more across the state over the next 10 years.
While white Americans make up the majority of eligible voters at 61%, since 2006, Latinos have become the fastest-growing voting bloc in the United States and make up the second-largest group after white voters.
Every year, around 1 million U.S.-born Latinos turn 18 years old and become eligible to vote.
“As these kids and adolescents and teenagers become voters they’re going to be a bigger part of the Michigan population,” Juenke added. “Its just going to continue to grow in importance.”
Michigan is well known as a swing state in federal elections, and several of the state’s U.S. House seats are considered toss-ups this year. But swing districts are important in the state Legislature too. Republicans have a slim hold on the state House right now.
With more seats up for grabs than usual on November 3, the results in Holland will be telling. Latino voters are now a key swing voting bloc, and it remains to be seen how they split on the candidates — and how closely they mirror the rest of the state’s divided electorate.
