With a year to go before the 2022 elections that will define who will control Congress, Republicans and Democrats have begun an intense struggle to win over Hispanic voters, who, although they were decisive in sending Joe Biden to the White House, are disenchanted. with the government.
The more than 16.6 million Hispanic voters who participated in the 2020 elections have become a long-awaited spoil for both parties, especially in states where they can tip the balance on Capitol Hill.
THE THIRTEEN STATES
Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin are home to around 80% of the Latino electorate and states where both parties have already launched their strategy to ensure Hispanic voters.
The director of Communications for Hispanic Media of the Republican National Committee, Jaime Florez, said that the Party is not going to resign from “any state” and that “campaigns directed at the Latino voter are being developed in all the United States”, even in areas eminently Democrats like California.
On the other hand, the Democratic Party is also pulling out all its artillery to retain Hispanic voters within its ranks, said Adrian Eng-Gastelum, spokesman for the Congressional Democratic Campaigns Committee.
VERY SIMILAR STRATEGIES
When asked about the strategy, both advisers agree that their plan is to establish a direct connection with the Latino communities, even reaching the home of the voters.
Democrats already had very good results with this strategy in states like Arizona in 2020, when, with the help of pro-immigrant activists, they managed to win a victory after 25 years of conservative rule.
In Arizona, Latinos represent 25.2% of registered voters, and in this state, Republicans are planning to open several campaign centers dedicated to Hispanics, according to Florez. Another 26 centers are planned to open nationwide.
For its part, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has already started with a strategy to try to convince Hispanic voters through advertisements in Spanish by opposing Senator Mark Kelly, according to the Axios news site.
The ads, which will air in Tucson, Phoenix, and Yuma, claim that “Kelly has forgotten about the working families of Arizona.”
DO NOT STAY BEHIND
President Biden’s party does not want to be left behind.
“Eighteen months before Election Day (November 2022), House Democrats began placing Latino mobilization directors in key districts and employing innovative strategies to share our message of creating well-paying jobs and fighting for justice ”, assured Eng-Gastelum.
Nearly 50 organizing directors will have a particular focus on working with African American, Hispanic, Native American, and Asian communities.
The DCCC also launched the “Juntos Together” campaign, an online information center with resources in Spanish and English “to highlight Democratic achievements and to combat dangerous misinformation from the far-right”.
In that sense, Florez says that the Republican Party is focused on speaking with Hispanics about the issues that interest that community such as the economy and security, policies in which, he valued, President Biden and the Democrats are failing.
THE ACHILLES HEEL
The Republican spokesman stressed that the situation on the southern border of the United States, and the overwhelming arrival of migrants due to Biden’s alleged “open borders” policy, will serve to show voters “how bad the country is with the Democrats “
The Republican Party opened three centers dedicated to Hispanic voters in McAllen, Laredo, and San Antonio, in Texas, where it won Latino supporters in the last elections, as well as in Florida, where Biden’s discourse of fear of supposed “socialism” triumphed.
ONE YEAR FROM THE ELECTIONS
One year before the midterm elections, Biden faces low levels of approval among the Latino electorate. At the end of last May, the support of Hispanics averaged 60%, one percentage point more than that received in the elections, but since then this approval has fallen more than 15 points.
In October, three opinion polls showed that only 43% of Latinos supported the president’s work.
That is why the Democrats are reinforcing the messages about the government’s achievements. The president of the political action committee of the Hispanic Caucus in Congress, Rubén Gallego, highlighted last week that the Jobs and Investment in Infrastructure Act, signed by Biden this Monday, “will improve the lives of millions of Latinos.”
And Rodrigo Domínguez Villegas, research director of the Latino Policy and Policy Initiative at the University of California, Los Angeles, warned that Latino voters are an “undecided electorate” and recommended that both parties “participate in meaningful outreach and participation activities. ” If they want to guarantee their support.
In a year it will be known who got his strategy and dedication right before an electorate that is once again vital to define US national policy EFE