New Congressional War Room Targets Hispanic and Latino Voters in Key Races Through Spanglish
New Congressional War Room Targets Hispanic and Latino Voters in Key Races Through Spanglish
New "Lucha" war room in Congress seeks to use Spanglish to attract Hispanic and Latino voters, and battle misinformation
AFP
Original article: Latin Times 2/16/2024
NEW YORK CITY - As the November elections get closer by the day, Democrats in Congress are launching yet a new strategy to attract Latino voters. Their weapon of choice this time? Spanglish.
The campaign arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, an organization of Democrat Hispanic and Latino members of Congress, launched a new campaign war room strategy using Spanish and Spanglish— switching back and forth between Spanish and English, sometimes in the same sentence— to boost candidates in key congressional campaigns.
"This is the first war room that has ever had Latinos in mind from the very beginning and at its very core," said Victoria McGroary, executive director of BOLD PAC. "So every single thing that we have done in designing this war room is with the lens of, how can we communicate this best to a Latino audience?"
The war room, called "Our Lucha," will focus on a dozen key races around the country with ads on YouTube and other social media platforms, according to NPR. The races will include two for the U.S. Senate and ten swing House congressional districts in West Coast states such as California, Colorado, Nebraska and Texas.
The use of Spanglish as a campaign strategy should not come as a surprise. Last year, a Pew Research study found that Spanglish is widespread among Latinos, with around 63% of the demographic using the combination of Spanish and English.
With an initial six-figure budget, BOLD PAC, the fundraising arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, says the new effort will expand on test cases led by congressional candidates in previous campaigns.
Florida Democratic Representative Maxwell Frost is one of the current members of Our Lucha. He continuously advocates for Gen Z and Latino representation in Congress.
"You might be nervous doing a full ad in Spanish and maybe sounding, you know, like a 'gringo' or whatever, and you don't want to sound that way," Frost, who is also the youngest member elected to Congress, told NPR from his Capitol Hill office.
During his campaign last year, he released an ad in Spanglish, which he believes allowed him to connect with Latino voters of different ages.
The strategy is not new, as the Biden campaign has also pushed this messaging over the past months. Late last year, the campaign reportedly tapped Conexión, founded by Colin Rogero, a seasoned political consultant, to design and produce ad campaigns tailored to this key demographic. Several ads in Spanglish have been released over the past months.
The war room is launched amid a series of studies that show Latinos' discontent with the party.
Florida Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is an endorsed BOLD PAC candidate running for the Senate against incumbent Republican Sen. Rick Scott. She says the new Lucha War room will be a boost in her race.
"This is more critical than ever as we continue to see disinformation being spread and targeted to Latinos," she said.
Lucha war room has already released its first ad. This one focuses on the Arizona race, in which BOLD PAC has endorsed Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego, where he could face off former Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake. This race could decide the control of the Senate in 2025.
These efforts also come as new reports show that an estimated 35 million Latinos are eligible to vote in these November elections. Of those 35 million, an estimated 17.5 million are expected to cast a ballot in November's presidential election, a 6.5% increase compared to 2020 and almost 40% compared to 2016.
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