A little less than six months before the November legislative elections in the United States, the parties republican Y democrat they are fighting tooth and nail to win the Hispanic vote. And they are spending three times more than the funds normally used.
The Hispanic vote has always been traditionally Democratic, but in these midterm elections – who will elect federal representatives and senators, as well as some governors – neither the Democrats know if they will be able to maintain this traditional electorate nor are the Republicans sure they already have it on their side to wrest the majority from their rivals in the House and the Senate.
Thus, both parties are betting on conquering Hispanic voters in the race to dominate Congress. The stage of this battle is played mostly in the states of Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
For this reason, in recent months, new Hispanic community centers have been created, advertisements have been placed in Spanish-language media, and bilingual personnel have been hired to convince this sector of the electorate to support the candidates of one or another party in all contests.
“The DNC (Democratic National Committee) has already spent millions of dollars on paid media geared toward Hispanics and plans to continue to invest heavily in consistently reaching that electorate during the midterms,” he told the agency. AP Maca Casado, director of Hispanic media for the Committee.
“We are investing a multimillion-dollar sum to attract Hispanics, considerably higher than in other electoral cycles,” explained Jaime Florez, director of Hispanic communications for the Republican National Committee, without offering details. “The Hispanic voter is essential,” he assured.
On the Republican side, they say their goal is to reach not only swing states but also Democratic states like New York and California, where the mandate of a liberal attorney general has been revoked.
“It makes us think that people are not necessarily isolated in a party and some ideas, but that people can be open to listen,” Florez said. “It is not difficult for people to understand that things are bad. We are the expression of options to change that reality a little.”
USA: more than a million Democratic voters go to the Republicans five months before the elections
The mid-term elections, which are held on November 8, are key for President Joe Biden since they will determine what support he will have from then on in Congress. For the Republicans, meanwhile, it is about gaining ground with a view to the 2024 presidential elections, when they intend to regain the White House.
In the elections, the 435 seats in the Chamber and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be chosen. There will also be races for governor in some states and for state legislatures, as well as some municipal elections.
In the opinion of analysts, Hispanics are a growing group throughout the country and their electoral participation is key.
Just over 62 million Hispanics live in the United States, according to 2020 census figures compiled by the Pew Research Center, although just over half are eligible to vote. Among the requirements to be able to do so are having US citizenship and being over 18 years of age.
In 2020, Hispanics represented 13.6% of all eligible voters, according to information from the Census Bureau.
The NALEO Educational Fund, a nonprofit group that promotes Hispanic participation in politics, expects at least 11.6 million Hispanics to vote in November, a figure similar to that of the 2018 midterm elections in which that number of people represented a record.
Arturo Vargas, president of the organization, said that the message of economic improvement promoted by the Republicans resonates more among Hispanics than the message of the Democrats about less heavy-handed on immigration or the cancellation of the right to abortion.
“I think (Democrats) have to pay close attention to what are the most important issues for Hispanics in these elections. And that has to do with the cost of living, inflation, the economic situation in which many Hispanics find themselves, in which they cannot maintain their quality of life due to everything that has increased in price, such as gasoline, food , housing,” Vargas said.
The truth is that “the Hispanic vote is growing with each election and with each election it will be much stronger, with much more impact on the results,” he concluded. “A party that wants to be the majority party of the future must necessarily have a Hispanic strategy.”
