Bradenton attorney gets Latinos involved in the voting process

BRADENTON, Fla. — Several organizations and community members are working to increase the numbers of people voting amongst Hispanics. It comes as the demographic is falling behind other ethnic groups when it comes to heading to the polls.

Attorney Christopher John Czaia is one of those people encouraging the Hispanic community, saying “democracy is a very fragile thing, we could have it today and lose it tomorrow.”

Czaia has formerly run for political office in Manatee County and Pinellas County, to name a few. Although he’s not seeking office now, his political work hasn’t stopped.

What he saw as an elected official motivated him to start his own accident and injury law firm.

“When I started out, I found myself in a community that didn’t have attorneys representing Latinos, particularly the Mexican community,” said Czaia. “We had a lot of people here doing agriculture here working in the fields.”

Czaia says the limited representation opened his eyes to the need for education and it’s the reason he started a weekly podcast talking about recent pieces of legislation.

“We try to educate what exactly is the law, in order to have a democracy that functions we need to be educated,” he said.

Czaia is also pushing for Latinos to be involved in the voting process.

Right now, there are approximately 36 million Hispanics who are eligible to vote in the 2024 election. That’s almost four million more than 2020, according to the Pew Research Center.

Czaia says it’s particularly important to target young adults.

“If we participate, we see change. If we don’t participate, nothing changes,” he said.