Updated July 18, 2024 at 14:28 PM ET
When President Biden pulled out of a speech to a Latino advocacy group in Las Vegas Wednesday night after testing positive for COVID-19, he missed a chance to shore up support among a key group of voters.
The Latino vote is growing, especially in swing states. In Arizona, they made up roughly a quarter of voters who cast a ballot in 2020, according to NALEO Educational Fund, a nonprofit that works to increase Latino political participation.
Biden missing the speech was “a huge bummer,” Latino outreach strategist Stephanie Valencia told Morning Edition. The former Obama administration official is the co-founder of EquisLabs, a research and polling group that aims to create a better understanding of Latino voters. She was at the conference and hoped to hear the President speak.
“It was a huge opportunity for him to make his case to Latinos about why in this, the most consequential election of our lifetime… why their vote matters,” Valencia said. She added that it was a chance to “present his agenda to them as to why he is the person and the candidate that can fight and deliver for them.”
So what should Biden’s pitch be to Latinos?
Biden’s record is all Latino voters need to look at, Valencia said, “from the economy to other issues that they view with an economic lens like health care, the cost of education, student loans, gun safety [and] abortion.”
“He has a case to make to Latinos,” she added.
Biden’s recent move to protect some undocumented immigrants from deportation, if they’re married to a U.S. citizen, is also something he can promote to the Latino electorate, according to Valencia.
The president is still going to have to earn their votes
Latino support for Biden isn’t a given, Valencia noted.
A recent poll of likely Latino voters in swing states found they supported Biden 59% to Trump’s 39%, but support for the president fell when independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was listed as an option.
“He needs to court and not just count on the Latino vote,” she said. “We know that the Latino vote is not a given, but could be the difference in this election.”
For Biden, it’s not as simple as touting pro-immigration policies, according to Valencia.
“Latinos do not just care about immigration, but it is a really important issue,” Valencia said, because it tells them how a candidate views the Latino community.
Trump’s mass deportation plan could be off-putting for Latinos
For the president, and his predecessor and opponent Donald Trump, what’s important is showing the Latino community they belong in America, Valencia stated.
“Do they view whether or not Latinos have something to contribute to this country?” she said.
That’s where one scene from this week’s RNC could hurt the Trump campaign, Valencia pointed to. Signs were given out to delegates that read “MASS DEPORTATION NOW,” as reported by CBS News.
This year’s Republican Party platform contains a pledge, in all-caps, to “CARRY OUT THE LARGEST DEPORTATION OPERATION IN AMERICAN HISTORY.”
The signs on the convention floor were “chilling”, said Valencia, “and I think probably sent a message to many Latino voters in this country that that is the view of Republicans and who they see Latinos as and who they see immigrants as.”
If Republicans continue that rhetoric, they will have “overplayed their hand”, she said.
The results in key battleground states in November will show if Valencia’s analysis is correct.
Copyright 2024 NPR