Long haul for Latino voters | Stewart J Lawrence | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

America's largest and fastest-growing ethnic group recorded another political milestone last week when voters in Maryland – a major receiving state for Central American immigrants, many of them illegal aliens – prepared to elect Salvadoran-born Victor Ramirez their first Latino state senator.

Ramirez, a Democrat who's served in the Maryland legislative assembly for the past eight years, defeated incumbent David Harrington, an Anglo, by a two-to-one margin in Prince George's County, a largely African American political jurisdiction located on the outskirts of the nation's capital. Ramirez is expected to win easily against his Republican opponent in the general election this November, despite his outspoken pro-immigration politics and growing pressure from the state GOP to institute an Arizona-style crackdown.

But Ramirez's win also illustrates just how far Latinos still need to go to transform their demographic strength into real political clout. Nationwide, about 200 state assemblymen and – with the Ramirez win – some 60 state senators are Latino. That means less than 4% of the country's 7,200 elected state representatives are Latino. Five years ago, the figure was just 3%.