Latino Victory Project (LVP), an organization that helped elect seven Latinos to Congress last year is now looking to take that momentum to several state capitals. On Thursday, Latino Victory Project formally launched its first state PAC in Georgia, with Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) – the first Hispanic U.S. Senator—appearing alongside Rep. Brenda Lopez (D), elected last year as Georgia’s first female Hispanic state legislator, for the kickoff.
“Our goal is to help build a bench for Latino candidates from school board to Senate. We have not seen another organization undertake this before,” Cristobal Alex, president of the Latino Victory Fund, said in an interview.
Georgia seems like an odd place to start but it has seen fast voter growth; although they comprise just 2.3 percent of the state’s 5.4 million voters, that represents a threefold increase since 2004 according to Pew Research Center.
“We see Georgia as representative of the future of the country. Rapid demographic shifts, increasing Latino voter turnout and participation,” Alex said.
Latino Victory Projects aims to raise “into the six figures” for the Georgia PAC, with the added goal of recruiting and endorsing Latino candidates to win various local and state races in the coming years, particularly in the Atlanta area. In 2016 alone, LVP raised more than $4.2 million, distributed among 12 congressional and state legislative races, with successes such as Cortez Masto, Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), and Darren Soto (D-Fla).
Recent Comments