President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign is honing its strategy to reach Latino voters ahead of November, officially launching a program on Tuesday focused on getting his message out to Latino communities nationally and rallying them to the polls. 

What You Need To Know

  • President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign is launching a national program on Tuesday focused on getting his message out to Latino communities and rallying them to the polls in November
  • The growing voting bloc could prove critical this November in a few swing states, particularly amid recent polls and data from recent election cycles showing Hispanic voters, who have historically backed Democratic candidates, may be increasingly more open to the GOP’s message 
  • The launch of the program coincides with the president’s southwest campaign swing this week, where he will touch down in Nevada and Arizona
  • The 30-second spot focuses on Biden capping insulin costs at $35 a month and his efforts to protect abortion access, seeking to use the two issues to draw a contrast with his former rival and likely 2024 opponent Trump

The growing voting bloc could prove critical this November in a few swing states, particularly amid recent polls and data from recent election cycles showing Hispanic voters, who have historically backed Democratic candidates, may be increasingly more open to the GOP’s message. 

The launch of the program coincides with the president’s southwest campaign swing this week, where he will touch down in Nevada and Arizona –  two battleground states in which Latinos make up about 22% and 25% of the eligible voting population in each state respectively, according to the Pew Research Center.  

Biden will specifically use a stop at a local Mexican restaurant in a predominantly Latino area of Phoenix on Tuesday to kickoff the effort, dubbed Latinos con Biden-Harris. 

The program will seek to unite Latino Biden supporters around the campaign's messaging, and encourage them to reach others in their community in an effort to connect with voters where they are. The campaign will also hold events such as volunteer trainings and house parties throughout the week in multiple swing states. 

“The Latino vote was critical to the President’s victory in 2020, and 2024 will be no different,” Biden-Harris 2024 Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement. “Latinos con Biden-Harris will be essential to activating and mobilizing Latinos across the country, and importantly, is another way we are making clear with action that we are investing aggressively into earning the Latino vote.”

This year, an estimated more than 36 million Latino voters will be eligible to cast a ballot in the general election, according to the Pew Research Center, an increase of nearly 4 million since 2020. 

While statistics from the most recent elections show Democrats still have a firm grip when it comes to the support of Latino voters, the margin by which Democrats have won among such communities has shrunk. 

In 2020, former President Donald Trump – who, along with Biden already received enough delegates to earn his party’s nomination for president – got the support of 38% of Latino voters to Biden’s 59%, according to the Pew Research Center. By contrast, Hillary Clinton won Latino voters 66% over Trump (28%) in 2016. 

And looking at the two most recent midterm elections head-to-head, the GOP’s 25% support from Hispanic voters in 2018 grew to 39% in 2022, according to the Pew Research Center. 

Recent polls have also given the GOP reason to believe it has made inroads with Hispanic communities. A survey from The New York Times and Siena College conducted in February found Trump edging out Biden among Latino voters by 6 percentage points if the election were to be held today.  

Meanwhile, the Biden team’s Tuesday program launch also comes with a new ad aiming to connect with Hispanic voters, recorded in English, Spanish and Spanglish, according to the campaign. 

The 30-second spot focuses on Biden capping insulin costs at $35 a month and his efforts to protect abortion access, seeking to use the two issues to draw a contrast with his former rival and likely 2024 opponent Trump. 

“For women, the freedom to control our own bodies or doctors going to jail for an abortion,” the ad says. “This is the difference between Joe Biden or Donald Trump.” 

The video – which is part of the campaign’s $30 million six-week ad buy announced following the president’s State of the Union address earlier this month – will air on news and lifestyle programming, such as CNN en Español and Galavisión, the campaign said.

In January, the incumbent president’s reelection team said the campaign has already launched six ads targeting Latino voters between August and December, both in Spanish as well as English. The Spanish versions of the ads were recorded in two different accents in a bid to connect to different Latino audiences.