Latino Vote: Dispatches from the Battleground

The Latinx community is growing in political power because we're making sure that folks are getting involved in the political process.

We're out there doing the work because we know that it needs to be done.

Here in Florida, the coronavirus is impacting everything.

The crisis and the failure of leadership makes so clear why Latinos need to turn out like never before.

So how is Joe Biden gonna rise to the occasion and build authentic relationships with our communities?

I don't think that you should talk about the Latino vote without thinking about Afro-Latinos.

By overlooking that, I think we miss a rich and an accurate understanding of what the Latino experience is.

There's a misperception of Hispanics being Democrats, but there's a young generation of young conservatives that are trying to change that.

They back a lot of conservative principles.

They're pro-life, they're pro-family, and they're experimenting on how to use their growing influence.

What do you do when somebody's both Hispanic and evangelical?

Are they progressive or are they conservative?

And the reality is that we're not a monolith.

Maybe Hispanic evangelicals can chart a way forwards that says no political party has a monopoly on gospel values or Hispanic priorities.

[Reagan] Ladies and gentlemen, Buenas tardes.

[Bush] Mi casa es su casa.

[Obama] Bienvidos a la Casa Blanca.

[crowd] Aquí estamos, aquí no cerramos.

[woman 1] I'd like to introduce my tío Bernie Sanders.

[chanting] [chanting] The US Supreme Court in a five to four ruling said that changes in the voting could not be justified.

Black lives matter!

Black lives matter!

Black lives matter!

Well, thank you very much and hello Las Vegas.

Hey, are you ready for today, though?

Yeah, I think so.

Today is the best.

Everyday is the best.

Optimism is our greatest tool.

Start with a smile because a smile helps tremendously, right?

I can get rejected a million times, but I'll keep asking.

Have a great day.

I believe we're out here, I want to say, 30 minutes and the usual rate's about two per hour.

I try to keep my numbers up though.

One of the first questions we ask is, "Do you have your Nevada state ID on you?"

If they say yes, I just help them out through the form, making sure that we get everything perfect.

-Yeah, 20th.

Put another-- -Twentieth.

The biggest goal is to really empower our community.

We can do that by getting people to vote.

Especially people who are on the edge, you know?

They want to vote but they're not really sure.

We're a really big part of this country and we're super motivated, so it's gonna greatly impact the election, and really, everything.

I've been doing this work for 31 years.

When I first started, a man told me that the Latino vote was much like the chupacabra.

And if anybody who's Mexican understands this, is that it's like a phantom ghost or like a bogeyman.

It's always talked about in the culture but never seen.

That's what the Latino vote was 30 years ago.

You're gonna get ready to see the chupacabra this year.

Just walk right down Main Street.

We're in the heart of the Latino community here in east Las Vegas.

It's a hub of activity within the Latino community.

This was the very first office that we opened in Nevada, which was a strong signal to the community that we were here and we weren't gonna leave.

We've been out here since June, so these people know who we are.

When we come, they open the door and say, "Hey, I'm still supporting Bernie!"

In every campaign I've ever worked, there comes a time where people run out of money.

There's budget decisions and the first thing that always gets cut is outreach to diverse communities.

They show up to our community late and, you know, it's kind of a slap in the face to take our community for granted.

And a big thing is that we're not a monolith.

Other campaigns wrongly put us all in a basket together and think that they're supposed to have a Taco Sunday and put a mariachi band out and they can talk to any Latino anywhere, and that's just wrong.

And with Donald Trump at the top of the ticket, demagoguing our community, treating us like second-class citizens, there's an undertow of energy in the community, and I think they want to participate.

I give a lot of that credit to Donald Trump, mobilizing our membership for us.

I grew up in California in the 1990s.

When there were a series of discriminatory and xenophobic ballot initiatives.

One of the most famous was proposition 187.

For Californians who work hard, pay taxes, and obey the laws, I'm suing to force the federal government to control the border.

And I'm working to deny state services to illegal immigrants.

Enough is enough.

[announcer] Governor Pete Wilson.

And as a result of a Republican-led state championing policies that criminalize and disenfranchise Latinos, it led to something that was unprecedented.

It was like the Prop 187 effect.

Aquí estamos, aquí no cerramos.

And what we saw is droves of Latinos registering to vote.

And this is really important because when we look at what is happening in the country right now, is there a Trump effect?

[sat-nav] At the next stop sign, turn right.

When Trump got elected, it was a really hard thing to watch.

You were left with this disbelief, like, "I can't believe this is really happening."

There's one of him, and there's another one.

Oh, and that was me hugging Bernie.

He even had his arm round me, like, "Wha!

So happy!"

Shall we try this house?

I was not politically involved.

I was not informed.

So I was like, "I have to do something."

And so I decided to take action.

Me and my son, we went to our very first march.

That was the very first time that we took action, and we took action together.

During the time when my mom was pregnant with me, my father lost a job that was providing them with health insurance.

They decided to just go to Mexico where they could afford the medical payments that were going to come along with my birth.

And so they had me out there and then they just brought me back.

They never imagined that 30 years later I'd still be without status.

The Latinx community is growing in political power because we're doing a better job of making sure that folks are getting educated and involved in the political process.

I may not be able to vote, but I'm making sure that every single person within my circle can participate in this election.

Because you have a voice.

Yo u have a very powerful voice.

I said, "What do we want?"

Justice!

-And when do we want it?

-Now!

[announcer 1] The state of Ne vada is third in line to vote in the primary contest - a labor union dominated by women and Latinos, could decide the winner.

[announcer 2] By the way, both sides recognizes the Republicans are afraid of what the Culinary can do, and the Democrats want the Culinary to do what it can do.

More campaigners are engaging us for the same reason Donald Trump is attacking us.

Because there's more of us now.

Because our vote is our voice, and is our power.

And we can make a huge difference.

Campaigns know that in 2020 we are going to be the largest non-white voting bloc in this country.

and we have the ability to sway this election.

-No contract!

-No peace!

We've heard many say that Donald Trump will go down in the history books as the greatest Latino organizer of all time and God, I hope that's true.

We've learned by what they've done to our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico, that this is not just about your status.

We've seen what this president has done to our community, and so I feel that that has lit a fire in us.

[chanting in Spanish] You know, I came from Nicaragua, 1979.

And I came for political reasons.

And I have political asylum.

This is America, and this is the country who protects every single immigrant.

And this is the year where we put in all our effort to kick President Trump out!

We need to defeat Trump.

Let's face it.

The White House is a mess.

And when you've got a mess, and you really need it cleaned up, call a woman to get the job done.

-No contract!

-No peace!

[ominous music plays] He puts God first.

And that is amazing to me.

Hello!

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for our president and his family.

We pray!

Amen!

And God's [inaudible] That's pretty good.

Well, thank you very much and hello, Las Vegas.

It's great to be with you.

Well, I'm delighted to be back in a state I love, I have a beautiful building right down the road.

By the way, the union, I have a lot of respect for that union.

Last time, they had a strike in my building during the election.

It's the only reason we would have won this state, like brilliantly.

I could've settled the strike before the election.

I wanted to save two dollars.

Since my election, over 125,000 new jobs have been created right here in Nevada.

We have the best unemployment numbers in the history of our country.

African-American unemployment, Hispanic-American... Hispanic, we got a lot Hispanic.

I love Hispanic.

With your help this November, we're going to defeat the radical socialist Democrats and we are going to win Nevada in a big, beautiful landslide.

[chanting] Four more years!

Four more years!

Four more years!

Four more years!

Four more years!

Four more years!

The durability of the Latino vote for Republicans has been remarkable, and it has been at about between a quarter and a third of the Latino vote.

Hispanic Republicans, especially since the 1990s have argued that immigration is not the only issue they care about, that they care about education, jobs, healthcare as much as they care about immigration, if not more.

So, I think they're able to explain away a candidate's statements about immigration by saying that we care about other things more.

In fact, I think that the Republican party sees some of its greatest opportunities for growth among immigrant evangelicals.

[speaking in Spanish] I support the president because I believe in faith, family and our core values, who we are.

Hey, we'll see ya.

He's changing some things that have helped the United States of America move forward.

We don't believe in abortion.

That baby, it's alive.

It shouldn't be aborted, so we believe in life.

He really stands up for that.

Vice-President Pence is amazing.

Amazing man of God.

He brings great input from being a Christian to the table in the administration right now.

I've been to the White House probably... you could say, maybe over ten times.

I shared with him a strategy of how he could win the vote for the Hispanic community.

I told him not to use the word "Mexican" anymore.

And if he wants the Hispanic, Mexican-American vote, you don't wanna talk like that.

We know how that could be offensive, and how it could offend a lot of people.

But as a Christian, we look at it from a different perspective.

If something offends us, we forgive you.

Father, we just bless Mr. Trump right now.

We are reaching out to the communities.

The numbers are up who are going to vote for Trump and Hispanics are a force to be reckoned with, so I believe the Trump administration, the campaign is doing a good job at that.

I just believe something in me that President Trump's gonna get four more years.

The best is yet to come.

Let me introduce to you the next First Lady of the United States, Jane Sanders.

Bernie!

Bernie!

Bernie!

Bernie!

No campaign has a grassroots movement like we do.

[cheering] Nevada, I want to thank our rank and file union members.

I want to thank Make the Road and all other grassroots organizations that helped us win there.

There's a few things the Senator's campaign did that were quite unusual, different in Nevada that could be replicated elsewhere.

The first was how early they started to invest, I mean, basically the moment that Sanders declared his candidacy, reaching out to Latinos was just core to what they were doing, both in English and in Spanish.

And I think what's fairly unique in what Chuck and the Sanders campaign created is that it was a critical mass of people.

It was a really, pretty large team of a lot of people who came from different parts of the Latino community, both in terms of country of origin and immigration status and also age.

I'm a DACA recipient and I have been involved in activism my whole life out of necessity.

Whether he's in the White House or not, we're gonna have to keep fighting because the way that things are going now, is obviously not working for everyday, working class people.

It's not working for minorities.

If anything, it's gotten worse.

We've received attacks from this administration and instead of backing down, we're getting louder.

There is a really galvanized kind of layer in this generation that just wants to get things done and wants to do right by the needs of the community.

And I think that many of them really came of age in the Sanders campaign in 2016 and in 2020.

Mr. Biden, will you continue if you do not win South Carolina?

You have said that South Carolina will determine the outcome of this presidential race.

I intend to win South Carolina, and I will win the African-American vote here in South Carolina.

South Carolina really changed everything.

Political observers and reporters and the campaigns all went into it knowing that it was Joe Biden's last chance and he had to really win strongly in order to get the nomination.

And he exceeded, really even, expectations that most people had.

I know Joe.

We know Joe.

But most importantly, Joe knows us.

-That's right, that's right.

-That's important.

It really went from being the Sanders race to lose to being very much in Joe Biden's favor.

There was also this undercurrent that reporters would hear often which is that older Black voters in particular thought that Biden was going to be a palatable person for white voters in the rest of the country, in swing states.

Folks, as we celebrate tonight here in Columbia, let me talk directly to Democrats across America, especially those who'll be voting on Super Tuesday.

If Democrats... nominate me, I believe we can beat Donald Trump.

[cheering] Let's go Joe.

Let's go Joe.

[announcer] Super Tuesday fever has arrived one night early here in Texas.

Biden is polling closely behind Senator Bernie Sanders here in Texas and also nationwide.

I've been hearing that Texas is going to turn blue for the past 20 years at least or more, since I was very young.

So it's kind of hard as a Texan to believe that.

Hating Trump is not gonna be enough and Biden's long had an enthusiasm challenge particularly among young Latino and Black voters.

I'm not sure if he's bridged that gap yet.

Today, I'm endorsing Joe Biden for president!

The 2020 Democratic primary showed us some innovations in the way that you can really capture and speak to the Latino electorate.

We had a candidate who had a whole plan for Latinos in America.

That was Senator Elizabeth Warren.

We had someone who completely revamped their presidential campaign to put Latino issues at the center.

That was Bernie Sanders.

And we had a Latino candidate, which was Julián Castro, who was taking really bold policy steps.

Super grateful to have Secretary Julián Castro with us as a surrogate for our future president, Elizabeth Warren.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello y'all, how are you?

I know that y'all have been hard at work and have gotten the word out here in San Antonio, and throughout the state of Texas.

I can't believe that it's already here.

That we're at Super Tuesday.

I got into politics because I'd grown up with a mother who had been part of the Chicana movement and that was very much about empowering the Latino community, not being ashamed of who we are, but celebrating it and putting it on the main stage.

Latinos have had enough of a president that wants to demonize immigrants.

Saturday was the location where 22 people were shot to death by a 20-year-old man, who apparently had a problem with Hispanics.

We've been here many, many times.

We were here.

-It could have been you.

-A couple of days-- Right.

It could have been any of us.

What happened on August 3rd in El Paso was sad and tragic.

Unfortunately, it was, in a way, within keeping of these times and the tone that this president has set of demonizing immigrants, scapegoating them.

And I do believe that for a good number of people, that also was a wake-up call and my hope is that people and gonna translate that recognition that we need to go in a different direction to casting a ballot at the voting booth.

And we can only do that with intense efforts to register people, to get them motivated to vote and with candidates that speak to issues that people care about in the community.

Hi, this is Alicia with Move Texas.

I'm calling to remind you that voting's going on now.

Great, awesome, thank you so much for being a voter.

So, I was born in Panama City, Panama.

My dad was in the Air Force, He was a Spanish linguist, and met my mom during the ousting of Noriega, the invasion of Panama.

So politics has always been present at my dinner table.

My parents have encouraged me to continue to develop my political voice.

And so now the work that I do is organizing young voters around the state of Texas to turnout.

The way that things look in Texas is that young people are suddenly making the state in play.

So when we say the young vote, in large part, we mean also the Latinx vote.

I expect Latinx voters to turnout very aggressively in these elections.

So in this presidential election, we're looking to capitalize on the momentum that young people have and for them to use their power at the ballot box.

You can see them over there.

They look like they're deliberating on where to go.

What Move Texas does, engaging college students year round, registering voters no matter the time of year, no matter the election, is a critical form of self-defense for those voters against campaigns that may look at them in a one-dimensional way.

We're setting up voters to be more literate in the issues, to be more literate in the things that matter in their communities.

Are they open, like, every day?

So today's actually the last day to vote in the Texas primaries.

Okay, awesome, -I might go after my class.

-Yeah, tell your friends.

Understanding how Texas is changing plays a critical role in understanding why you might see efforts at suppression that are so aggressive.

Young people are more powerful at the ballot box.

That also means people of color are more powerful at the ballot box, so the rise in suppression has to do with the changing demographics and also the changing power of those voters.

And so we see suppression as a direct response to that kind of activity.

[announcer] Today is Super Tuesday and already we are seeing some problems at a few polling places in north Texas.

[announcer 2] Lines that are wrapped around buildings.

[announcer 3] Six hours in line here at TSU.

So Texas is an epicenter of voter suppression, lots of polling locations have closed.

Since 2013, there have been 750 closures.

So every time you close a polling location, it makes the lines at the ones that are still remaining open much longer.

As we go into a modern era, where we have more voters of color, the Latino strength is there.

Yeah, there's been meaningful attacks to try and get people of color away from elections.

This goes from very strict voter ID laws to vote dilution and gerrymandering.

There is a lot of efforts to scare our voters, so voter protection is huge this year to make sure that we address Latino-specific voter suppression issues.

So if there's things that aren't translated in Spanish that they need to know, such as ID laws.

What type of ID do they actually have to bring?

Does it have to have their address?

Can they go to any poll?

So, it's very simple things to build that trust.

Nice meeting you.

Yeah, same here.

-How's the line?

-It's two hours long.

Is it wrapped around the...?

Yeah, it's all wrapped around inside.

So, there's a lot of development that's going on this year in order for us to start engaging our Latino communities, representing them and actually caring for them.

[announcer] Super Tuesday livig up to its billing tonight, resetting the Democratic race for president.

Former vice-president Joe Biden making a remarkable political comeback.

[announcer 2] Joe Biden surging to victories in nine states including a surprise win in Texas.

[announcer 3] He took roughly one third of the vote, edging Vermont senator Bernie Sanders by less than four points.

They don't call it Super Tuesday for nothing.

[cheering] And we're told, "Well, when we got to Super Tuesday, it'd be over."

Well, it may be over for the other guy.

[cheering] Eight months from now, we're going to defeat the radical socialists, we're going to win the great state of North Carolina in a landslide.

And today, we just had the largest one-day increase in the stock market in history.

[cheering] [ominous music plays] Today, the World Health Organization officially announced that this is a global pandemic.

[announcer 1] The market was in a free fall.

[announcer 2] ...making it the single largest point drop in history.

The coronavirus has decimated Latino life in the United States.

They are our frontline workers.

And because they're keeping Americans safe, they're dying.

And our research at UCLA has shown not only are they getting infected, at higher rates than other populations, they represent the most jobless Americans including the highest share of Americans who are ineligible for unemployment insurance.

And that, frankly, makes it hard for Latinos to not only be healthy, but to be depended on by the world's largest economy as we seek to reopen and rebuild.

With a narrowing path to victory and an end to normal campaigning due to the pandemic, Senator Bernie Sanders today suspended his presidential race.

So today I am asking all Americans, I'm asking every Democrat and I'm asking every independent.

I'm asking a lot of Republicans to come together in this campaign to support your candidacy, which I endorse, to make certain that we defeat somebody who I believe, and I'm speaking just for myself now, is the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country.

Here's what I'm hoping, Bernie.

I'm hoping that the American people are going to get a fresh look at really who makes the country run.

-I really mean it.

-Good.

The question about who Sanders supporters will vote for is an important one.

But to me, the bigger question is also if they will vote, because if they don't feel like there is a candidate, or candidates who are representing their needs, and pushing forwards a policy that they think will make a difference in their life, they might quite easily just decide to stay home.

And again, particularly at a time when they are dealing with so many basics of getting food on the table and keeping their family healthy, the option of staying home becomes much easier.

We're here in Doral, in Don Pan, in Miami engaging in some mutual aid, giving out food to over 600 families.

And also giving out gift cards and really calling on Governor DeSantis to cut the checks.

There are so many people who have lost their jobs, who've applied for unemployment and haven't gotten anything.

Florida is clearly gonna be a critical battleground state.

The Trump campaign has done so many efforts to invest in Florida.

Trump has changed his official residence to Florida.

He launched his Hispanic outreach campaign in Florida.

They're really clear that they cannot win the presidency without Florida's 29 electoral votes.

Mike Pence is in Florida campaigning, helping to win over Latino voters for President Trump.

I know for many of you in this room, many of your families fled socialist regimes in this hemisphere.

And you came to freedom in America.

The demographics of the Latino community in Florida are changing.

Puerto Ricans now make up the largest Latino ethnic group.

They're neck and neck with the historic Cuban-American community so how is Joe Biden going to rise to the occasion and build authentic relationships with our communities?

Here in Florida, we've already lost-- Fifteen-hundred people have died in this pandemic and we will lose more people.

The failure of Trump to take swifter action has had devastating results and damaged our economy, that is gonna take years for us to overcome.

We really believe we have to show up for communities in times of crisis.

That's the kind of conversation we need to be having now, and then we can we talk to people around, "Are you registered to vote by mail?"

Latinos represent one in five Floridians and they're also over 16% of Florida's registered voters.

But there's four million young people and people of color that aren't voting, that are eligible to vote and aren't registered or are not showing up at the polls.

We see that as our mission and mandate to expand and energize the electorate to transform our state.

The Democrats have always thought more in terms of working on the margins, right?

And bringing in the margins.

But I think now what they're going to have to do is convince those who are undecided, undefined.

Where are they gonna go, right?

And some of the research that we have for 2018 tells us that a lot of the undecided vote went Republican.

So how do you convert that into a Democratic vote?

Republicans have done a much better job of courting the evangelical vote than the Democrats.

Marco Rubio is an evangelical Christian and prides himself on that.

It's an audience that the Democrats must work on because they're the ones who are gonna determine the outcome here.

Testing, testing.

-Amen.

-Alright.

Thank you.

One of the things that people need to understand about Hispanic evangelicals, is that we are all over the political spectrum.

I think that when people hear evangélico or evangelical, they assume Republican.

But when they hear Latino, they assume Democrat.

So what do you do when somebody inhabits both identities?

They're both Hispanic and evangelical.

Are they progressive or are they conservative?

And the reality is that maybe Hispanic evangelicals can chart a way forward for a more nuanced public discourse that says no political party has a monopoly on gospel values or Hispanic priorities.

The fastest-growing group of evangelicals are brown evangelicals or Hispanic evangelicals.

There's about, probably, nine million Hispanic evangelicals in the US.

Probably six million of voting age.

About 40% of Hispanic evangelicals are registered independent.

And when Obama ran, in his two terms, he won a slim majority and George W. Bush won a slim majority of Hispanic evangelicals.

So when they see us, they say, "Well, if this is the group of Hispanics "that's up for grabs, "we need to really reach out to them."

I've had conversations with people at the White House, and people from the Biden campaign and I'm saying, "What are you gonna say about immigration?

"What are you gonna do about healthcare?

"What about criminal justice reform?

"What about religious liberty?

"And what are you gonna do about life?"

And when you speak to those whole host of issues, no party has a monopoly.

If I'm going to be honest, is we're politically homeless.

We are politically homeless and that's why so many of us, like me, are registered independent, looking for a platform that speaks to the priorities that are so close to home, and that matter to our kids and our children and our grandchildren and our abuelitos and our abuelitas.

Hallelujah!

[spanish lyrics] Traditionally, campaigns are focused on in-person stuff, like barnstorming or door knocking.

Now, with the coronavirus, it's pretty clear that no one is going to be going to anybody's home anytime soon.

And that means that there's gonna be an outsized reliance on digital connections.

And so, as we're facing an election at a time where society is on edge, we need to not only let people know how, where, and when to vote, especially those who have never voted by mail before.

We also need to give them a reason to vote.

Hey y'all, it's Alex.

I've been working at home for a month and a half to two months now.

Social distancing does not mean emotional distancing.

It does not mean we put down the fight for social justice, it means we just change the way we do it.

And so a little bit of updates on what were up to in this critical election year, where we know we have to turn voters out, especially for those down-ballot races that are gonna change Texas is working a lot on vote by mail eligibility.

We've been fighting to expand eligibility so folks can vote safely, so that our democracy doesn't have to suffer because people are worried about their health.

So even if I'm doing it from home you can bet that I'm still gonna be fighting for the democratic rights of all Texans.

Everything on the Las Vegas strip has been shutdown.

Unemployment is crazy high out here.

We only have essential workers going to work right now.

There has been some casinos, such as the Wynn that have agreed to pay their employees, but then there's also other casinos who haven't done the same.

It's a difficult thing to deal with with our community, knowing that we are at the core of so many essential businesses.

There are those few who might still have their job, but then they are struggling with having to go to work during this pandemic, knowing that they don't have insurance for themselves or that they might have children at home who they fear would get sick.

We've been doing everything we can to connect our community to different resources that are available, whether that be food pantries or answering questions about rental assistance, unemployment.

Although Bernie did drop out of the race, I'm very hopeful that here in Nevada, we can continue to motivate Latino voters to stay engaged.

We are very hopeful that Biden will come to us a community to listen to our needs.

We hope that we can continue to push the Democratic Party more towards the left.

[Attorney General Ellison] Today, I've filed an amended complaint that charges former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for murder in the second-degree for the death of George Floyd.

[announcer] This is a coordinated activity happening across this nation.

Black people are dying.

And so young people are responding to that.

They are enraged and there's an easy way to stop it.

Arrest the cops.

Charge them in every city across America where our people are being murdered.

Breonna Taylor!

-Say her name!

-Breonna Taylor!

We're a peaceful movement.

They shoot us.

It ain't right.

[chanting] -Hands up!

-Don't shoot!

-Hands up!

-Don't shoot!

-Hands up!

-Don't shoot!

-Hands up!

-Don't shoot!

-Hands up!

-Don't shoot!

Black lives matter!

Black lives matter!

Black lives matter!

Black lives matter!

You know, America's issues with race have been simmering for a while.

And I hate that it took that video of George Floyd being killed for so many people to wake up and realize that this is a systemic issue.

We've seen Defund the Police become something that maybe people thought was just incredibly radical to something that people see as very real, tangible and something that needs to be implemented right away.

[chanting] Silence is complicity with white supremacy!

Which side are you on?

Which side are you on?

I think the most important thing the Latino community can do in the wake of George Floyd's murder is to interrogate anti-Blackness.

If we haven't reckoned with the ways that racism works in our countries of origin, then we're gonna struggle with dealing with racism here.

There are Afro-Latinos who are still uncomfortable calling themselves Black.

And it's because they have been taught anti-Blackness.

They've been taught to distance themselves from Blackness because of where it sits on the social hierarchy.

People are challenging that.

When it comes to colorism, I think that people are finally demanding that people who benefit from whiteness declare that privilege, but also do something about it.

We're moving from sympathy to solidarity.

The issues of ethnicity and the attack on the poor and locking up other people of color from cages to holding somebody's neck down, there's a deeper sense of solidarity.

So now people that haven't voted are interested.

A lot of people that live here are essential workers.

So it's not until recently, the last couple of weeks, that people are actually being tested.

All week long, we give food out, especially for families that are undocumented.

So we're giving out like 5,000 to 10,000 meals a week to our Latino community.

There are 930,000 Latinos in the state of Pennsylvania.

Fifteen percent live in Philadelphia.

So, if the 235,000 Latinos in Philadelphia County alone turn out to vote, that's huge.

After Hurricane Maria, we had a lot of families come this way.

We know that many people in Puerto Rico lost everything.

You know, their homes, their belongings, everything that they owned.

And so a lot of people came here because many already have support systems or family members that are part of the city.

Puerto Ricans, by birth are American citizens, but in the general election, we can not vote.

Unless, because we are citizens, we move to one of the 50 states and then re-register as voters in one of those states, then we're able to vote for president.

I think the Puerto Rican vote will definitely play a big role in Pennsylvania.

We have really the power of swinging the vote.

[chanting in Spanish] It could be a tipping point if we finally realize how the vote affects every aspect of our lives.

It might be an angry vote, but it's gonna be vote nonetheless.

Small shifts in the Latino vote can lead a presidential candidate to win in critical battleground states and therefore win the election.

Hispanic outreach and the issues that Republican candidates have focused on have, in some ways, changed over time, but they have also, in many ways, stayed remarkably consistent.

I think the party's efforts to reach out to Latinos early on in the 1950s and 1960s had a lot to do with the Cold War and I think anti-socialism and anti-communism.

And anti-radicalism has been a much more consistent message over a long period of time.

Where's my phone?

Are you guys ready?

The first thing we do, before we put up the yard signs you gotta dance to a little salsa, alright?

First of all, let me just thank each and every one of you guys for making it out today.

I really appreciate all the support.

I'm running for State Representative, okay?

Conservative Hispanics have been marginalized because they don't fall in line with how other Hispanics vote.

You know, smaller government, religious liberties, the Second Amendment right.

Those are all things that are very near and dear to conservative Hispanics.

Democrat voters, they think it's a monolithic culture, and it's not, Hispanics are very diverse.

I'm a first-generation American of Cuban descent, my parents and my grandparents are exiles from Cuba.

They were forced to flee their country because of communism and socialism.

As a Cuban-American, it's really important for me to be involved and make sure that we don't have our country slide into socialism or communism.

We're gonna win and we're gonna win big, alright?

We're gonna do so much winning your head's gonna be spinning.

The Young Republicans is an organization that focuses on young voters between the ages of 18 and 40.

And we get people registered to vote, we help out campaigns by knocking on doors.

You see a lot of young people starting to realize that they have this agency and they have this power and they're experimenting on how to use their growing influence.

You're seeing the removal of statues, you're seeing the erasure of history, you're seeing the suppression of expression through this monoculture.

I think that you're seeing people's religious liberties be tamped down and it's very scary to see the same mistakes of the past being repeated today, and people just pretending that that history didn't happen.

So, you know, I'll be damned if I allow the country to slide into communism without fighting it.

Beep!

Beep!

Beep for Biden!

We are in unprecedented times.

We have a president who doesn't care about Americans' lives.

He cares about one person, and that's Donald Trump.

And he only cares about his re-election.

In the midst of this pandemic, we are proving by doing these socially distanced demonstrations that there is tons of support for Joe Biden in communities like Miami-Dade county.

We are going to be the state that will deny Donald Trump re-election.

Beep for Biden!

Viva, viva, viva!

I was born in Cuba.

I came to the United States in 2001 with my family.

My family and I, we fled political persecution in Cuba, and so nobody needs to explain to me what communism is.

Nobody has to explain to me and my family, what authoritarianism is, what oppression is.

When we see Donald Trump attack a free and fair press, when we see Donald Trump +propagate his own propaganda networks, when we see Donald Trump attack and threaten to jail political opponents, we see what we saw in Cuba.

And we already lost one homeland.

And we absolutely refuse to lose another.

Many of my own family members that were once strong Republicans, I know will proudly support Joe Biden come November.

And it's because he's someone that unites people.

Joe Biden understands the Latino community, we know Joe Biden, and that's why we are so eager to come out and support him as the next president of the United States.

[chanting] Vote for Biden!

Beep for Biden!

Let's go, Joe!

I think a lot of Latinos will probably vote from a basis of fear as opposed to a basis of hope.

You want people to have hope and to feel that their political beliefs are embodied in their candidate.

We know that the Latino vote is going to be critical, just like the Black vote is going to be critical for any Democratic candidate.

That's why it really matters that there's investment in strategies that mobilize our communities and persuade our communities on why they should vote for a given candidate.

To win the election, I think President Trump needs to remind voters why they voted for him in the first place.

Trump is looking to improve the economy.

He has a record of doing that.

That's the kind of president that we need right now to get us out of this COVID slump.

I think it's really important that we all just don't get involved for today, for the elections, for these months.

We need to continue to stay involved and informed every single day.

We're very worried about what's happening with the Post Office and mail-in votes.

And the sense that people's right to vote is being sabotaged.

Young people are gonna show up remembering how the federal government behaved, following the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

Black lives matter!

They're gonna remember these things at the ballot box.

Everything that's occurred in this chaotic year has only made clear that there's severe racial and ethnic disparities that need to be addressed.

I hereby declare that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America.

♪