With Vice President Harris gaining traction as her party’s likely presidential nominee, Democrats have a new opportunity to make inroads with Latino voters, a key voting bloc in Arizona.
Latino voters are expected to make up 25% of all eligible voters in Arizona in the next election.
“For the third consecutive election cycle, there has been a record number of Latinos cast ballots in Arizona,” said Tania Torres, who owns a Phoenix-area communications agency that specializes in voter engagement. “That number is only going to keep getting bigger.”
President Joe Biden won about 59% of the Latino vote nationwide in 2020, but recent polling has shown former President Donald Trump closing that gap.
Democratic political consultant Luis Acosta-Herrera said Vice President Harris has the chance to win back some of those voters.
“I do think that there is a reinvigorating of that base and of people who maybe just didn't feel like Biden really represented them or or felt like he just couldn't do it,” said Acosta-Herrera, who is a recipient of DACA recipient, a federal program that prevents the deportation of some undocumented residents brought to the U.S. as children.
“ I do think that there's a sense of excitement now that there's been a little bit of a change,” Acosta-Herrera said.
Acosta-Herrera, who worked on Democrat Mike Bloomberg’s 2020 presidential campaign, said the fact that Harris is a woman of color will appeal to many Latino voters.
Torres agreed, saying Harris is uniquely positioned to court Latina voters due to her vocal leadership on abortion access issues.
Both Torres and Acosta-Herrera said that, in many Latino families, those matriarchs can also influence the votes of other family members, as well.
“I do think there is an inherent trust in trusting a woman, especially one who is a woman of color, with some of these high level decisions in the biggest role in the United States,” Acosta-Herrera said.
Torres pointed to an example from her own life.
“As a Latina myself, I was voting my early ballot this weekend, and I reached out to at least 50 friends and family, reminding them to fill out their ballot,” she said. “A lot of those turned into conversations about the candidates on the ballot.”
Torres added, “Once you get the 'comadre' circuit going, there's no stopping it.”
