WASHINGTON.— The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed the lives of more than 42,000 Latinos and, kicking off early voting in several key states, the Democratic National Committee launched an ad campaign in Spanish Monday to urge Hispanics to vote next month as if their life depended on it.
“This November 3,
our lives are on the ballot.
Make your plan to vote ”
, warns one of the announcements, which were advanced to Noticias Telemundo before its official broadcast in local media in Arizona, North Carolina, Florida, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The Democratic Party launches a millionaire ad campaign in Spanish to capture the Hispanic voteDNC / Noticias Telemundo
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With only 22 days left before the general election, the radio and print advertising campaign is targeting Hispanic voters in the handful of states with the tightest races and where they can tip the balance toward Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden.
The chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Tom Pérez, said in a written statement that Latinos have suffered disproportionately from the COVID-19 pandemic and
that the blame lies with the Administration's "failed response" Trump.
The ad campaign directs Latino voters to the VoyAVotar.com website, which the DNC has provided to provide information on how to register to vote, and create a plan to vote in person or by mail.
“Latino communities across competitive states have an extremely important voice in this election, so we are speaking to them directly and making sure they have the tools they need to plan to vote,” explained Pérez.
Under Trump, the DNC noted, Latinos have recorded more than 42,000 deaths from COVID-19, in addition to the
ensuing economic recession
leaving millions of people unemployed.
The Biden-Harris binomial is the clear option to stop "the erosion of values" in the country and help the Latino community, argued the DNC.
The ads will appear in local newspapers in Arizona, North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin, while the radio ads will air two popular shows in Arizona, and others in California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, Texas and Wisconsin.
In most of those states, Latinos
have already made their mark
, while in others, their power is steadily growing, according to an interactive map from the Pew Research Center.
Latinos have a lot of political weight in the southwestern U.S.María Peña / Noticias Telemundo
The DNC ad campaign comes at a time when, according to the most recent Pew Research Center poll, Biden leads the president, Donald Trump, among Hispanics by a 34-point margin, although he still
has the task of generate more enthusiasm
among Latinos.
The DNC is also not immune to the fact that states such as Florida persist disinformation campaigns on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and on digital telephony applications such as WhatsApp, in which Biden is branded a "socialist", with the intention of to deny the vote of Latinos.
[What is FactChat? Find out from your WhatsApp who is lying in these elections]
Although 32 million Latinos are eligible to vote this year, the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) estimates that, of these, 14.5 million will go to the polls.
According to a recent analysis by Pew, between 2000 and 2018,
Latino voters have increased in number and political weight in every state in the country
, particularly in southwestern states such as California, Nevada and Texas, and have also registered remarkable changes in Arizona and Florida.
For his part, President Trump has also recently intensified efforts to attract Hispanic voters: if Biden wins, it is one of his key messages, the United States will reach out to Venezuela and Cuba.
In Arizona, Hispanics made up 24% of all eligible voters in 2018, the year in which Latinos also contributed to the “blue wave” that gave victory to numerous Democratic candidates.
[The Latino vote in Arizona, Florida and North Carolina could be decisive in the presidential elections]
Texas, which has 38 Electoral College votes, has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1976, and cemented itself as a "red" enclave, or Republican, when it endorsed Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.
This year, however, the outlook in Texas is different, and the state Democratic Party launched another ad campaign last week, including some in Spanish, to encourage participation at the polls, especially by youth and Latinos.
That campaign, in turn, is unlike a landmark campaign Biden launched in Texas last week, totaling $ 6.3 million.
