California’s Latino voters helped turn state blue. Will others catch the wave?

Lorena Gonzalez remembers well the political earthquake that struck her home state of California 25 years ago. She felt it clear across the country, in Washington, D.C., where she was studying government as a graduate student at Georgetown University.

On Nov. 8, 1994, Californians overwhelmingly backed Proposition 187, a ballot initiative that sought to screen out unauthorized immigrants and deny them state services, such as public schools and most health care. Voters in the Golden State, on the heels of a recession, had had enough of footing the bill for...