Political organizations supporting Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are touting both campaigns’ messages of “freedom” as they woo Latinas, a key voting bloc.
Hispanic women is the female racial or ethnic group that grew the most in the 12 years from 2010 to 2022, according to the Pew Research Center, growing by 5.6 million and numbering about 22.2 million as of last May. They make up about 17% of the nation’s adult female population.
They also turn out to vote in larger numbers than Latino men.
While Latinas have seen gains in education and employment, they still struggle with lower pay and disproportionately live in states with abortion bans.
So it was no accident that Harris, in summarizing her “fight for freedom” platform at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute conference last Thursday, included, along with freedom to vote and freedom to be safe from gun violence, “freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not having the government telling her what to do.”
Also last week, two Trump-backing Republican political action committees launched “Latinas for Freedom,” an initiative to reach Hispanic women about the economy and the Harris agenda, which they’ve dubbed as “socialist.” The GOP PACs behind the initiative are CPAC Unidos, the Hispanic arm of the Conservative Political Action Committee, and Bienvenido Action PAC.
The freedom messages come amid a tight race in key battleground states. Against Hillary Clinton in 2016, Trump won just 28% of Hispanic women voters compared to Clinton’s 67%, according to Pew. But in 2020, Trump’s share among Latinas rose to 37% compared to President Joe Biden’s 61%, Pew found.
Harris’ support among Latinas in 13 battleground states was at 60% in August, compared to Trump’s 34%, according to a poll by Equis Research, a Democratic polling firm that focuses on Latinos.
Stephanie Valencia, a founder of Equis, told 19th News that Harris is doing 13 points better than Biden with Latinas under 40.
Also, at least 13 states saw increases in Latina voter registrations when Biden left the race and endorsed Harris, according to TargetSmart CEO Tom Bonier.
Comparing the week of July 21 of this year to the same week in 2020, registrations by Latinas 18-29 rose 149.7% and were up 78.3% for Latinas of all ages.
https://www.parriva.com/latino-voters-new-record-number-of-potential-voters-in-november/
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