GOP makes its case to Latino voters at convention, sets sights past 2024 election

MILWAUKEE - Latino voters in the United States are crucial to cementing a conservative voting majority for the next generation, according to Latino Republican and conservative operatives at the Republican National Convention.

With the Nov. 5 general election more than 100 days away, they’re detailing plans for aggressive engagement efforts beyond traditional conservative circles such as South Florida, home to historically Republican-leaning Latino voters whose origins trace to socialist-led countries in Latin America.

Operatives say they will focus their resources on 21 battleground counties around the U.S. with significant Latino voter populations.

Those include two of the fastest growing areas in the country: Arizona’s Maricopa County, which encompasses the Phoenix metro area and is home to most of the state's voters, and Nevada’s Clark County, home to sprawling Las Vegas.

They also will target areas with sizable, emerging Latino communities such as Wisconsin’s Milwaukee County.

Already, former President Donald Trump has made inroads among Latinos since his first presidential campaign in 2016, especially among men.

An Axios Vibes survey by the Harris Poll published on the second day of the GOP convention brought more good news for Trump and Republicans.

The survey, conducted in the days leading up the convention in Milwaukee, showed that Latinos who identify as Republicans are 15 percent more enthusiastic about voting in November, compared to Latino Democrats.

All Latinos surveyed, regardless of party affiliation, identified inflation as their biggest concern.

It's welcome news for Republicans, who this week are making the case to Latino voters in Milwaukee that their lives were better under Trump than under President Joe Biden.

“Latinos have always been conservative. And I think that we just bring it back to our values, our family, and making our family first,” said Elisa Snider, the chair of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly, which traces its roots to the RNC’s outreach to Latino voters under President Ronald Reagan.

“Protecting our families is the best way to protect our country. And the way to do that is by voting for the Republican Party, for President Trump in the future, and bringing it back to where we have a better economy and a safer country,” she added.

Trump’s reelection campaign has partnered with dozens of conservative groups nationwide on outreach to Latino communities, such as the Republican National Hispanic Assembly or the America First Policy Institute’s Hispanic Leadership Coalition, chaired by Bob Unanue, the CEO of Goya Foods.

The Republican strategy centers on highlighting faith, family and freedom, pillars of the conservative moment that they believe resonate well with the country’s largest minority voting group.

That's a message that has come up repeatedly among Latino speakers at the convention.

“The Latino community is diverse, but we are united in our values,” Unanue said Monday. “Values that include an unwavering faith in God, an abiding love of family and a fierce work ethic. We want the freedom to worship, to love, and to work in a way that gives us purpose, gives us a reason to get up every day.”

Republican leaders are aiming to build and expand on gains from four years ago when, amid historic election turnout, Trump increased his support among Latino voters by double digits.

Joe Biden won a majority (59%) of Latino votes in 2020, but Trump saw his share of votes increase from 28% against Hillary Clinton in 2016 to 38% in the matchup against Biden four years later, according to a post-election survey by the Pew Research Center.

“He tells it like it is,” Jorge Martinez, the Hispanic outreach strategist for the America First Policy Institute, said in explaining Trump’s appeal to Latinos.

Millions of new Latino voters up for grabs

The number of Latino votes keeps on getting bigger. They already make up the largest minority voting bloc and are projected to increase their clout.

The Pew center puts the number of Latinos eligible to vote in November at 36.2 million, an increase of nearly 4 million voters since 2020. In fact, Latinos account for half of new eligible voters in the U.S., the center found.

In key swing states such as Nevada and Arizona, Latinos make up nearly a quarter of the electorate. Even in swing states with emerging Latino communities, such as Georgia, North Carolina and Wisconsin, their numbers are significant enough to sway close elections.

Perhaps the biggest challenge for Republican and Democratic strategists is that Latinos are significantly less likely to vote.

Turnout rates among Latino voters consistently have trailed other ethnic and racial groups, according to an analysis by the University of Florida’s Election Lab.

In 2020, slightly more than half of eligible Latinos cast a ballot. Two years later in the 2022 midterm elections, the share dropped to 31% of eligible voters.

Republicans such as Martinez say that presents an opportunity to go after registered voters who don’t vote consistently.

The America First Policy Institute brings together former cabinet and government officials from the Trump administration and its allies. They formed the Hispanic Leadership Coalition to bring more Latinos into the movement.

Over the next election cycle, the coalition plans to knock on more than 2.8 million doors in the 21 swing counties they believe will decide the 2024 election. That outreach will include a media campaign to amplify their messages on economic prosperity and in-person events such as town halls and block parties targeting Latinos.

The group also launched a Fé con Propósito, or Faith with Purpose, tour that relied on pastors and faith leaders to talk policy to voters, particularly evangelicals who have gained greater influence in traditionally Catholic Latino communities.

“We say, 'Hey, listen, Jesus called on his people to be involved in the issues of the day.' There's more than 2,500 instances in the Holy Bible,” Martinez said. “So right now, we believe the church is missing an opportunity to make their voice heard to protect those values, especially religious liberty, which is more and more under attack from the left.”

Looking beyond the 2024 election

Martinez called the coalition’s commitment to engaging with Latino voters a "100-plus year effort." Their work, he added, will stretch beyond the Nov. 5 general election because they see an opportunity to wrestle votes away from Democrats in the long term.

“I think the Hispanic community, just like the Black community, is turned off by lip service from Biden, the Democrats on the left, and that hypocrisy of coming every four years and kind of relying on their vote as a bloc as opposed to really, truly engaging with them,” he said.

Republicans are not immune from that same criticism.

The national party opened to much fanfare in 2022 several Hispanic Community Centers located in strategic Latino communities around country.

In Milwaukee, where Latinos now make up nearly one in five residents, their center was located along a major thoroughfare in the city’s predominantly Latino southside neighborhood. It closed months later, after the midterm election.

The space is now slated to open soon as an ice cream shop.

On July 12, Wisconsin’s Republican Party said it would reopen an office in Milwaukee’s southside in August to serve as a hub for the Trump campaign and other local and state campaigns. The party declined to provide a location.

“Hispanic voters are tired of the failed policies of Joe Biden and are ready to restore common sense leadership to the White House with President Trump,” Brian Schimming, the state party’s leader, said in a written statement.

Lea Márquez Peterson, a lifelong Republican from southern Arizona and the first Latina to serve in a statewide office, said her party’s inconsistency towards Latino voters has been a longtime concern of hers.

She led the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for a decade and unsuccessfully ran for congress in 2018 to represent southern Arizona. Now, she’s seeking reelection to the Arizona Corporation Commission.

“I have seen that during election cycles, the Hispanic effort launches, escalates and then it's over at the end of the election cycle,” Márquez Peterson said. “Then we start it again, and sometimes with new data and without the learnings that we have from the previous cycle. Then it's over and on and on. And that's been my experience.”

Last year, she established the Hispanic Leadership PAC to recruit and help elect Latino Republicans. The group developed a 20-year plan, starting with a focus on federal races in Arizona, but the idea is to expand to other states such as California, Texas and Florida.

The group recently made its first endorsement and maxed out political contributions to its first Latino Republican candidate, U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz. He’s an immigrant from Mexico who won his election in 2022 by just 280 votes.

Ciscomani represents a Tucson-based swing district along the Arizona border that frequently switches party control in Congress. He faces a rematch against Democrat Kirsten Engel in November.

Márquez Peterson said her goal is to build a space for other conservative Latinos to help provide them with tools and resources, using what she has learned in her experience running for office.

“One of the key areas I'd like to focus on is helping Latino candidates … to help raise funds, because we know that a lot of the success candidate have at various levels is based on the money they can raise,” she said. “And I think there are a lot of folks that want to see and hear more Hispanic conservatives at these levels. And it's important that they know where and how to raise the money."

The Hispanic Leadership PAC also hosts Cafecitos, roundtables with Latino business owners around Arizona to discuss policy issues impacting their jobs. The most recent event earlier this month featured former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican.