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Joe Biden has been elected president of the United States, beating Donald Trump after a hard-working and ultimately successful performance with Latino voters, despite Democrats’ perpetual fears of insufficient reach throughout the race.
Biden equaled Hillary Clinton’s figures from four years ago with 66 percent Latino support, compared to 32 percent for Trump, but was strong in parts of the Southwest, where Hispanic voters helped drive the victory of Biden in Arizona, which changed the elections.
In total, the Biden campaign said Newsweek spent $ 125 million on its Latino voter program, the first time it has shared strict budget figures on how to reach it. The number includes television, radio and digital in Spanish, as well as bilingual operations, staff and direct mail, which was led by Adrián Sáenz, advisor to the campaign. But it also includes Spanish-language and digital television tailored to Hispanics, which the campaign stressed was a key part of its efforts.
Latinos, who lost disproportionately jobs and faced financial difficulties, as well as a higher rate of infections and deaths, also made their presence felt in states that Biden won by narrow margins where Latinos are a smaller portion of the electorate, such as Pennsylvania. and Wisconsin.
Biden’s campaign featured Newsweek They launched an aggressive, micro-targeted Latino program based on the fact that the community is diverse and always had the potential to tip the vote in their favor in states like the Midwest, where the population is small but significant.
“We knew that the Latino vote not only justified a historic investment, but that investment had to focus on building a culturally competent program in both English and Spanish that reached out to voters on the issues that mattered most to them and their families.” said the deputy. Campaign Director Julie Rodríguez, who was a quarterback for the senior Latino staff team, said Newsweek.
Andrea Mercado, executive director of the New Florida Majority, a group that worked to mobilize Latino and black voters in Florida, where Biden lost, recalled speaking with a Latino voter in Palm Beach, Florida, just days before Election Day. , who summed up the sentiments of so many in the group who participated in recent weeks.
“He doesn’t love us” – “he doesn’t care about us,” the immigrant worker said of Trump. “We will have a new president in January,” the voter continued, adding “God willing” or “God willing.”
Democrats and activists said Trump made his bed: He chose division over uniting the country, and saw Latinos and immigrants as a source of trouble rather than an asset in strengthening the nation.
They also offered numbers to explain why Latinos repudiated the incumbent president. More than 40,000 Latinos have died from the pandemic, as well as a recent report that 545 migrant children still have no parents due to the Trump administration’s family separation policy.
Fueled by unprecedented fundraising of more than $ 1.2 billion this year, including a dizzying $ 750 million in the past two months, Biden’s campaign was able to increase his investment in the pockets of diverse Latino communities across the country, particularly after the Democratic Convention Party.
The Latino program also included massive Latino voter polls nationwide, and in battlefield states, of thousands of voters, such as Newsweek reported for the first time, allowing the campaign to adapt and target its outreach to different sectors of the largest voting bloc.
The survey data was then sent to state Latino directors to fine-tune the reach and mobilization of messages for Latino youth, men, immigrants, and different ethnic groups. Senior Advisor Jorge Neri coordinated a weekly meeting with Latino state directors to assess their scope and what they needed to do their job better.
Biden’s victory in Arizona, the first by a Democrat since Bill Clinton in 1996, not only reshaped the electoral map, but was the first state to show that Trump 2020 would be different than four years ago, after the Associated Press announced it. early.
Biden can thank Latino voters, who supported him between 63 and 33 percent, for helping orchestrate his victory.
“We’re talking about Arizona and demographic change the way we talk about Nevada,” said Matt Barreto, pollster for Biden’s campaign. Newsweek. In recent days, for example, Larry Sandigo, the Latino director in Arizona closed with Lowridin ‘with Biden GOTV events in Phoenix and Tucson, with Latino men in their lowriders with Biden posters.
“The only reason we’re having a discussion about Arizona is because of the growth of the Latino vote,” Barreto said, adding that Latinos gave Biden a net margin of 288,000 votes in the state. “Now we are fighting battles for the votes of the increasingly young and diverse Americans in the Sun Belt.”
Janet Murguia, the president of UnidosUS, one of the oldest Latino civil rights organizations in the country, was in Arizona in the days leading up to November 3. He said the story coming out of Arizona and other key states is the “political empowerment” of the Latino community, citing the anti-immigrant law SB1070 that was passed a decade ago, and work to turn the tide and blue status since then, by defenders and democrats.
“It is a story that reflects a remarkable transformation of the demonization and profile of Latinos and immigrants 10 years ago,” he said.
Kristin Urquiza, whose father supported Trump before feeling betrayed by pandemic mismanagement before his death, agreed that Arizona’s Latinos have risen up after the legacy of SB1070 and said the state represents a frontier into the future. and a case study for other states.
But looking at his own family, he knows there is more work to be done. Urquiza has four cousins in their twenties, three with college degrees, but all four are unemployed. She hopes Biden will keep his promises and change that reality for many in the Latino community after they led him to victory.
“Our mutual goal should be how to better rebuild for all Americans, and Latinos in particular,” he said.
Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty
Even before Biden announced his candidacy, Senior Advisor Cristóbal Alex sat down with him and Dr. Jill Biden to discuss Latino strategy and the complexity of the community. Alex also created a spreadsheet with the names of the top 200 agents to hire, including Laura Jiménez, who, as director of Latino engagement, pushed for ethnic and heritage selection for groups within the Latino community such as Colombianos con Biden, and led the countless Zooms with substitutes and grassroots organizations. groups.
After the primaries, Alex worked to reach out to progressives and forged alliances with Voces de la Frontera, led by respected immigrants in Wisconsin and CASA en Acción in Pennsylvania.
In Pennsylvania, where the count continued days after election night, Latino voters also provided critical votes to cushion Biden’s narrow margin in the state. Hispanics gave Biden 69 to 27 percent support, and the campaign estimated a 116,000-vote margin of the 290,000 votes cast by Latinos.
Outreach directed at the state included “Hamilton” star Lin-Manuel Miranda organizing a telephone bank last weekend when Puerto Ricans on the island called Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania to get the vote, and a meeting of Latino voters with Senator Kamala Harris in Lehigh Valley.
In Wisconsin, Nathaly Arriola, who helped advise on paid media in the states, booked ads on La GranD, a regional Mexican music radio station in Milwaukee, and La Movida, the only Spanish-language radio station in Madison. There, Biden received 60 percent support from Latinos, compared to 35 percent for Trump.
But in the highest-density Latino-majority districts in Milwaukee, Latino support was 77.4 percent for Biden, according to a district analysis by the UCLA Latino Politics & Policy Initiative (LPPI).
Still, there were disappointments within the vast national Latino vote for the campaign.
In Florida, Trump was highly competitive in the heavily Cuban-American Miami-Dade County, and Biden underperformed Hillary Clinton’s Hispanic support in the state by 10 points, while Trump improved an impressive 12 points. In Texas, 4 out of 10 Latinos voted for Trump, according to exit polls, helping put the surprising battlefield out of the reach of Democrats.
Given those results, veteran Democrats said Newsweek the Latino budget was impressive, but perhaps it could have been more effective if it had been implemented earlier in the cycle.
Vanessa Cárdenas, a former Biden aide who resigned during the primaries over concerns with the direction of Latino outreach, said the campaign led a “remarkable” change in recent months with Latinos due to investments and hiring.
But he said outside groups, like those in cities across the United States, did special work that showed creativity and love. One such group was Mi Familia Vota, he said, which held an event for voters who had helped obtain citizenship as they marched to the polls together.
“It’s a long-standing job, not magic,” he said. “But that gives me hope. Latinos have been building up to this point, Trump has put them through the fire. And these groups have been walking alongside the community.”
It’s a job of many years, not magic. But that gives me hope. Latinos have been building up to this point, Trump has put them to the test. And these groups have been walking side by side with the community.
Vanessa Cardenas, former Biden assistant
Felice Gorordo, co-chair of Catholics for Biden and a member of the campaign’s national finance committee, said work to engage Latinos has just begun.
“We have to continue to build infrastructure and use it to help drive and defend policies that the community is so demanding,” he said (such as pandemic relief). “If we don’t keep our promises, people will be disappointed.”
Murguía is no stranger to criticizing presidents, as he repeatedly did with Trump. But she was also the first major Latina leader to call Obama the “deporter-in-chief” when advocates criticized his deportation policies. He said he has a message for Biden.
“I would just say that you need to focus on delivering on your promises, particularly to the Latino community,” he said. “In addition to addressing COVID and strengthening the economy, you need to deliver on your promise to address immigration reform and make sure it is reflected in your 100-day agenda.”
While she said she’s not interested in a job in the administration, she said Biden will have to make real strides with Latino inclusion and representation to really allow the community to turn Trump around.
“It will be equally important to follow up on his commitment to change the tone and rhetoric from above and make his administration look like the United States. “There is no better way to do it than representation in your administration, cabinet and agencies.”
