Saying that Latinos are in President Donald Trump’s “cross hairs,” Voto Latino, the group committed to engaging and empowering Latinos in politics, is preparing to roll out a campaign to register 1 million voters by 2020.
“I gently remind people that once Latinos register, their chance of coming out to vote is 80 percent,” María Teresa Kumar, Voto Latino’s president and CEO, said Monday.
The efforts come as Voto Latino adds three members to its board, including former Housing Secretary Julián Castro, who is eyeing a presidential bid in 2020. The new initiative, called Somos Mas (We Are More), will focus on seven states: Texas, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Florida and California, including on 27 college campuses spread among them.
Also joining the board are Sonal Shah, who ran the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation under President Obama, and Brian Stansbury, a D.C.-based lawyer whose firm has served as pro bono counsel to Voto Latino.
The group will also have a digital effort concentrated on North Carolina, Ohio, Georgia and Pennsylvania and the rollout is set to begin in the coming weeks. The effort is aiming to spend $7 million.
Kumar points out that there will be 12 million new young voters by the 2020 election, two-thirds of them people of color — and that 60 percent of Latinos are under 33 years old.
“For the next three years, Voto Latino is going back to basics to enfranchise young American Latinos so they can fully participate in our democracy at the ballot box,” Castro said.
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