'Please tell your familia': Harris campaign targets Latino voters

It was a humid summer night in Washington, D.C., at a backyard barbecue at the vice presidential mansion. There were carne asada tacos, mariachi and margaritas – rumored to be one of Kamala Harris' favorite cocktails.

Gaby Pacheco was among the Latino leaders invited to the celebration in late July, which took on a new tone after Harris abruptly ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket four days prior.

Harris talked about how her mother had immigrated from India to the United States at 19, about the pride she felt reaching the pinnacle of American politics in just one generation.

The way Harris was talking "felt familiar," Pacheco said – like she was family. If Pacheco arrived uncommitted to the new Democratic candidate, she left a believer.

"I had to keep telling myself she’s not Latina," Pacheco said of the vice president.

Every year, Latinos become a larger share of American voters. An estimated 36 million Latinos are eligible to vote this year, representing 15% of the electorate, according to the Hispanic Federation. Of registered Latino voters, about a quarter will be voting for the first time.

Harris needs two-thirds of Latino voters in her corner to win, analysts say, echoing a benchmark that has been the standard for Democrats in elections in recent decades. Two recent polls of people self-identifying as Latino suggest she's not there ? at least not yet.

As Democrats convene for their national convention this week in Chicago, analysts say they must target this diverse group of voters whose politics can vary by geography, income, education and immigration story. Latinos polled by Univision identified as Mexican, Mexican American, Chicano, Puerto Rican, Cuban and others.

"The first thing people have to do to win Latino votes is try," said Gary Segura, a professor of political science at UCLA and a pollster for BSP Research, which has done polling for the Harris campaign. "For decades, candidates paid insufficient attention to Latino voters. I know the Harris campaign has prioritized this because of her California experience."

'Please tell your familia'

Nearly three-quarters of Latino voters say they are "almost certain" they'll vote in November, according to an August poll by the Hispanic Federation and Latino Victory, two civic engagement organizations. Enthusiasm and motivation surged after Harris took over the ticket, the poll showed.

In the poll, which surveyed 600 Latino registered voters nationwide, 59% of respondents said they intended to vote for Harris, versus 35% for Trump.

A separate August poll by Univision, which surveyed 1,100 Latino registered voters nationwide, pinned her support slightly lower: 53% for Harris versus 38% for Trump.

Roughly one-third of Latino voters are solidly in Trump's column, polls show.

Harris needs more Latino voters in her coalition to win, said Luis Miranda, board chair of Latino Victory. That's true not just in states like Arizona or Florida where Latino voters make up a sizeable portion of the electorate, he said, but in states where the Latino population may be small, but the margin of victory is expected to be tight – including in Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Many of the Latino voters surveyed in the Hispanic Federation poll reported needing more information about her policy platform.

"Only 33% of the people know what she stands for," Miranda said, "which means the Republican Party has a lot of time and a lot of dollars to try to define her. That is why it’s so important for her campaign to define her in Latino communities."

At the Democratic National Convention this week, the Harris campaign kicked off new Latino outreach.

On Monday, Harris campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodriguez, granddaughter of labor leader César Chávez, launched a bilingual WhatsApp group called "Latinos con Harris-Walz." She invited Latinos to the group with a social media video from Chicago saying the channel "is the first-ever for a presidential election."

"We hope that you'll join us today and please tell your familia, tell your tías, tell your tíos, your primos – everyone," she said, calling on Latinos to invite their aunts, uncles and cousins. "We really want to make sure that no one is left out of this campaign."

Inflation, jobs and the gender gap

A majority of Latino voters say pocketbook issues are their No. 1 concern.

In the Hispanic Federation poll, 60% of voters reported inflation as their top issue in the presidential election, with 38% listing jobs and the economy. In the Univision poll, 53% of voters surveyed said inflation was their top concern, with 43% listing jobs and the economy.

All other issues – including the border, immigration, abortion and climate change – polled far lower.

Jerónimo Cortina, associate professor of political science at the University of Houston, said Harris' political experience in California suggests she "knows what needs to be done."

"She won a statewide election in California," he said. "It’s not important to win the whole (Latino vote). It’s important to bring enough numbers to your coalition."

Like any other group of American voters, Latinos vary widely in their politics, influenced by everything from gender to national origin and place of residence. Analysts say appealing to different subsets of Latino voters will be a challenge.

For example, voters surveyed who identify as Puerto Rican "are already ahead of the curve for Democrats," with 64% favoring Harris, Miranda said. Whereas Cubans, especially in Florida, historically vote for Republicans.

Two-thirds of Latina women are with Harris, the Hispanic Federation poll showed. But Harris hasn't won over Latino men at the same rate. Just 50% of men surveyed by the Hispanic Federation favored Harris – echoing a gender gap seen among voters at large.

The reason why isn't in the polling data, Miranda said, but he hears possible answers in his own community, in coffee shop conversations in his Latino-majority neighborhood of New York City's Washington Heights.

"I really think Latinos hear Trump on a stage and some of them feel energized instead of insulted," Miranda said. "He says what he wants and criticizes what he wants, whenever he wants. That bravado I believe is appealing to a chunk of our men."

On the convention floor

Roughly 50,000 Democrats have flooded this week into Chicago, a city with thriving Mexican and Puerto Rican populations.

Among them was Jacob Garcia, a first-time delegate in Washington state. Garcia, who became a delegate after first hearing about it through his union, the American Federation of Teachers, said he attended a Latino luncheon on Tuesday, where party officials spoke about outreach efforts to Latino voters, which he felt were reassuring.

But he warned that Democrats must do more to “get out there and make sure that we're reaching” voters where they’re at.

The campaign has peppered its roster of convention speakers with Latino and Latina leaders, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

As to the challenge Democrats still have convincing Latino men to vote for Harris, Garcia said it's not an issue for him.

“I just was raised a little bit differently, I'm not, like, worried about the machismo,” he said.

All Latino voters want to know is, “what are you doing for me?” he said.

“What are you doing to make sure that you're bringing down the price of groceries? What are we actually doing on meaningful immigration?” Garcia said. “We shouldn't be taking the Hispanic or Latino votes for granted.”

Party politics

At the party in Harris' backyard, caterers handed out Mexican-style popsicles called paletas. A DJ played Elvis Crespo's "Suavemente," the ubiquitous merengue dance hit from the 1990s.

Latino members of the Biden administration were there, too, including Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

Pacheco describes herself as "very independent," someone who as a longtime immigrant rights activist has worked over the years with both Democrats and Republicans. She is chief executive of the nonprofit TheDream.US, which funds college educations for undocumented youth. Pacheco was born in Ecuador and brought to the U.S. as a child and grew up undocumented.

She hasn't forgotten that former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, still holds the record for the most deportations, outpacing Trump.

Still, the speech Harris gave in that intimate setting last month won her over: "It's not hyperbole. It really felt like I was the only person in the room."

Pacheco became a U.S. citizen last year. She threw a party in Miami that was more expensive than her own wedding and called it her "wedding to America." This year, Pacheco will be among those Latinos who will cast their first presidential ballot in November.

Voting, she said, "is what makes this country beautiful and powerful. I take it very seriously."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Latino voter enthusiasm surging for Harris, polls show