Latino voters will account for 20% of voters this fall Nevadawhere Democrats and Republicans expect the voice of the growing electorate to influence a race that could determine which party controls the US Senate.
Polls show that the incumbent Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, the first Latina elected to the Senate, just behind Republican Adam Laxalt. With early voting beginning next month and the campaigns entering their final stages, both sides are wooing Latino voters with a closing message focused on the economy.
Republicans say the state’s high inflation rate and rising economic fears give the GOP its best chance of gaining a foothold with working-class Latino voters and turning over a crucial Senate seat.
“The Latino vote will help us achieve victory in November,” said Jesus Marquez, a special adviser to the Laxalt campaign. “If we get 35 percent, that would mean a win across the board, but I reckon we’ll get 40 percent of the Latino vote.”
Getty Images/Trevor Bexon, Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Republicans also point to the gains made by former President Donald Trump with Latinos in Nevada in 2020 as reasons for optimism.
Trump won 35% of the Latino vote in Nevada two years ago, a seven-point increase from 2016. According to CBS News exit polls, Trump also made significant gains among Latino males nationwide, rising from 30% in 2016 to 43% % increased in 2020.
Nevada’s eligible voting population split into thirds, with registered Independents coming in second behind registered Democrats. While President Joe Biden won the 2020 Nevada Latino vote 65%-35%, he barely won the statewith just 33,600 votes at the top.
This narrow win in the state — despite the significant lead among Latino voters — is why Democrats and Republicans are fighting to win the Latino voters’ election. Your vote will help determine the winner of that Senate seat and potentially decide which party takes control of the US Senate. With the Senate currently split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats, every race is vital for both parties.
According to a recent New York Times/Siena College poll, more than half of Latino voters say they plan to support the Democrats and prioritize the economy as a key issue for their vote. But Latinos are almost split when it comes to which party they align with on economic policy: 43% say they prefer Democrat solutions to economics, while 41% say they prefer Republican solutions.
“The economy has been a big issue for Republicans in the state right now,” a GOP strategist familiar with the Laxalt campaign told CBS News. The strategist also said that Laxalt’s campaign will show through its closing message that “Cortez Masto is part of the problem that created this economy.”
That Covid-19 pandemic has severely affected Nevada’s economy, which is heavily dependent on the hotel and tourism industry. Closures at the height of the pandemic resulted in an unemployment rate of nearly 30%, double the national average.
Latinos, who make up a large portion of the workforce affected by the pandemic, also contracted COVID in greater numbers relative to their portion of the Nevada population.
Nevada’s unemployment rate has fallen to 4.4%, but the state’s inflation rate of 15.4% is among the highest in the country. According to the AAA, Nevada also has the third-highest average price for gas at $5.21 per gallon.
Nevada Republicans hope this will result in Latino voters venting their frustration by voting out the responsible party.
But Democrats argue that voters’ concerns about the economy are an opportunity for them to highlight President Biden’s legislative victories such as passage of the Build Back Better Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.
“Everything we talk about relates to economics,” said Josh Marcus-Blank, Cortez Masto’s campaign communications director. “We’ll continue to talk about how the senator has been supportive of the Latino community, the small businesses she’s saved and the good union jobs to come.”
Cortez Masto’s campaign also ran ads promoting the Inflation Reduction Act, which allows Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors. Democratic advocates say their party cannot be afraid to brag about their accomplishments and must highlight those victories when engaging with the Latino community.
“Latinos are in a constant window of belief, they’re actually some of the most compelling voters that we have in the electorate,” said Tory Gavito, co-founder and president of Way to Win, a national Democratic advocacy group that raised $2.3 million invested produces voters of color in Nevada. “If you tell them what the Democrats are doing to support them in this economy, they will vote for the Democrats,” she added.
That’s the playbook that Make the Road Nevada, a left-leaning organization focused on winning over 76,000 Latino voters in the East Las Vegas area, is trying to implement on the ground.
“When my community needed help, the Republican Party was nowhere to be found,” said Leo Murrieta, director of Make the Road Nevada. “They didn’t open food banks, they didn’t open vaccination clinics, they didn’t do any of that. It was Democrats who came together and made this shit happen so our families could literally survive.”
It’s the same message that drives Culinary Union as they deploy 270 full-time recruiters on behalf of Democrats in Las Vegas and Reno to knock on over 1.1 million doors, nearly doubling their efforts since 2020.
Ted Pappageorge, the union’s secretary and treasurer, said they’re reminding voters that Democrats’ resources allowed the group to convert one of its training facilities into a blackboard, which supported an average of 1,800 members a day for over a year.
While Republicans are confident they can attack Cortez Masto on economic issues, their campaign also sees an opportunity to go on the offensive by talking about abortion rights and highlighting Laxalt’s involvement in Trump’s campaign (Laxalt was Trump’s 2020 co-chairman in Nevada) and an op-ed Laxalt wrote that thousands of illegal ballots had been cast in Nevada.
Marcus-Blank said Cortez Masto’s campaign will portray Laxalt as “the face of the big lie” in Nevada. Cortez Masto has also focused on abortion rights, making the issue a central theme of her campaign following the Supereme Court decision in Roe v. Wade made.
According to a recent poll conducted by UnidosUS, one of the largest Latino advocacy groups in the country, more than 70% of eligible Latino voters support a woman’s right to vote. In Nevada, abortion is legal up to 24 weeks after pregnancy, and Republicans recognize that the state’s electorate stands for choice.
But Cortez Masto’s campaign sees abortion as a way to mobilize Latino voters and attack Laxalt.
“It’s also about reminding people of the threat that Adam Laxalt poses. He would be an automatic vote for a federal abortion ban,” Marcus-Blank said. The GOP strategist, familiar with Laxalt’s campaign, said abortion protections are enshrined in state law and “voters know that’s not going to change,” adding that Laxalt opposes a federal ban on abortion.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina recently proposed legislation that would ban abortion at the federal level after 15 weeks. In response to whether Laxalt would support the bill, a Laxalt spokesman said the proposal had “no chance of passing Congress,” adding, “Nevada’s law was passed by voters decades ago and will not change.” change.”
As the campaign moves into its final few weeks, Cortez Masto and Laxalt are both running ads in Spanish. Earlier this month, Laxalt launched an ad in Spanish highlighting the economy. Cortez Masto is on the air in Spanish and talks about unionism, health care and abortion. Cortez Masto’s campaign, in conjunction with Hispanic Heritage Month, has also introduced endorsements from more than 200 leaders in the Latino community.
Outside groups such as Somos PAC, a left-leaning Latino mobilization group, also spend money to air Spanish ads. Democrats have reserved nearly $90 million in advertising space in the final weeks of the election, while Republicans have set aside more than $70 million.
Midterm elections 2022
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