Asked which party was doing a better job of connecting with Latino voters, she hesitated and eventually settled on a cautious answer. Gina Hinojosa, the party's nominee for governor, pointed to the growing influence of Latino voters while speaking to conference attendees. "I do wish that Democrats would put more of a priority with Latino voters, and I think they're doing that now," Zuniga said. "They're realizing that they lost a lot of Hispanic voters during the last elections." But the conversations in Austin suggested that the issues shaping Latino voters have not changed much.