Major Latino Political Advocacy Group Launches 'Latinos Con Biden' to Boost His Campaign

The Latino Victory Fund, the first major Latino organization to endorse Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, launched a digital campaign to try to garner support for the former vice president. “Latinos con Biden” (Latinos With Biden) will be a coordinated expenditure, meaning that Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) can communicate on its efforts, but the program will be federally limited in how much it can spend.

The Hill first reported the news, saying DNC Chairman Tom Perez will announce the launch of Latinos con Biden during a webinar Friday. According to Pew, just 57% of Latino adults have computers at home (and 58% of black adults), compared to 82% for white Americans. This highlights the issues faced by digital campaigns in reaching minority voters, but that gap is narrowed by smartphones, as black and Latino adults own them at the same rates as white adults.

The website launched along with this effort will provide toolkits to Latino Biden supporters, which allow them to host livestreams in their communities in an effort to mimic typical in-person events made impossible by the social distancing measures required to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the Democratic primaries, Biden lost the Latino vote in many states to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., as exit polls from Super Tuesday states showed a consistent edge for Sanders among this cohort. Chuck Rocha, a senior Sanders campaign adviser, told McClatchy, “We spent more money on Latino outreach than Sen. Biden (sic) spent on his whole campaign probably. When we had time to run an extensive organizing program, we devastated people and showed how the Latino vote should be prioritized in every election.”

Maria Cardona, a Latina Democratic strategist, said that the Biden campaign “know[s] they need to do a lot more than what has been done to date. They need to speak to younger Hispanics. Frankly, they should hire Chuck Rocha to do the same type of outreach.”

While Biden won Super Tuesday to such a convincing degree that it effectively clinched the nomination for him, he responded to his defeat among Latinos with a “six-figure” ad buy in Florida, Arizona and Illinois. These proved to be effective as exit polls indicate that Biden edged Sanders among Latino voters in Arizona, and while exit poll data does not exist for the Latino vote in Illinois and Florida, Biden’s overwhelming victories in the two states make it likely he improved his share among this voting bloc here as well.

Mayra Macías, executive director of Latino Victory, told The Hill that "Latinos want to get Trump out of the White House, and we want to engage in the political process and vote. We know that historically, Latinos are the best self-organizers, and Latinos con Biden will provide the tools to empower our community to organize with access and information in a collaborative, familial space."