Outreach efforts to Latinos intensify, but it’s too late: More than 13 million have not registered to vote

With just 11 days remaining before the U.S. presidential election and the critical importance of the Latino vote widely acknowledged in social and political circles nationwide, a key question lingers: have the candidates done enough to secure Latino support? Many experts believe efforts to engage this demographic have been insufficient and started too late.

“There are more people talking about us than talking to us,” says Clarissa Martínez de Castro, vice president of the Latino Vote Initiative at UnidosUS, a prominent Hispanic civil rights organization. While outreach to Latino voters has ramped up in recent weeks, Martínez de Castro notes that “with more Latinos planning to vote early, in person or by mail, waiting until the last minute is really a missed opportunity.”

With 36.2 million Latinos eligible to vote, this group has seen the largest growth since the 2020 election, with four million new voters added. However, over 13 million have not registered to vote, hindered by a lack of information about candidates’ platforms, as a result of the limited outreach efforts. This barrier contributes to traditionally lower turnout among Latinos compared to other groups, such as white voters.

While both campaigns have intensified their outreach in recent weeks, including candidate forums on Univision with undecided Hispanic voters, experts argue that these efforts lack strategic foresight, and time is quickly running out.

After conducting a survey of Latino voters in late August, UnidosUS highlighted a concerning lack of information within the Hispanic community about the presidential candidates. At that time, only 30% of Latino voters reported receiving information from the Democratic Party, and even fewer — 21% — from the Republican Party. Recent data shows an increase, with 44% now reporting information from the Democrats and 31% from the Republicans, yet a significant information gap remains.

“It’s an improvement, but it comes too late,” Martínez remarked in an online forum focused on Latino voters in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona, where the presidential race is currently neck-and-neck.

The Latino population has spiked in these swing states. From 2002 to 2022, the Latino population nearly quadrupled in Georgia, nearly tripled in Pennsylvania, and more than doubled in Arizona. Latino voters also tend to be younger than the general electorate, with 41% of young voters in Arizona identifying as Latino, compared to 25% of the overall population. While the Latino electorate is diverse in education, income, and experiences across states, certain commonalities exist, such as a higher likelihood of living in crowded housing and lacking health insurance.

The Democratic Party has invested more in advertising aimed at Latino audiences, including targeted campaigns such as those for Hispanic women and, most recently, Men with Harris, focused on male voters. However, according to Martínez, the Democrats stand to lose the most from the failure to fully reach Latino voters.

“There is a lot of fertile ground for Democrats to increase their percentage of support, but like any fertile ground, you have to work it well. And if you don’t, someone else can come in and take that position,” Martínez warns. In recent years, Democrats have lost some ground among Latino voters to Donald Trump, though they still maintain a majority of Latino support.

Kamala Harris’ team, however, came in with a disadvantage: the campaign entered the race late, with just over three months until Election Day, and contending with the fact that she is relatively unknown to much of the Latino community. In contrast, her opponent Trump has dominated media headlines for the past eight years.

However, both campaigns have invested more in reaching out to Latinos; the problem is that the starting point for outreach was very low.

Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania, outreach efforts to Latino voters have ramped up significantly in the past week, according to Michael Toledo, CEO of the Hispanic Center. However, he notes that it may be too late. “Over the last week, we’ve started to see campaigns intensify. We are seeing people coming into our communities, knocking on doors, and initiating outreach activities that, honestly, I would have liked to see months ago,” he laments.

The Latino community in Pennsylvania has experienced the most growth in recent years, increasing by 40% since 2010, with 600,000 individuals now eligible to vote. Notably, 24% of these voters will be casting their ballots for the first time. Their significance is underscored by the narrow margin by which Joe Biden won the state in 2020, securing victory by just 1.80%, with Latinos accounting for 4% of the total votes cast. Despite this growth, many in the Latino community feel disengaged. “Many in our community still feel overlooked, that their vote is taken for granted, and that they are underrepresented in outreach efforts,” explains Toledo.

In other swing states, such as Arizona and Nevada, Latinos hold even greater potential to influence election outcomes. In Nevada, they comprise 20% of the voting population, while in Arizona, they make up 25%.

Experts criticize that preconceived notions about the Latino electorate lead to information being ineffectively disseminated. For instance, Latinos are often erroneously associated primarily with undocumented migrants, despite the fact that eight out of 10 are American citizens. Past election surveys have also suggested that Latinos would not support a Black candidate or a woman; however, both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton won the majority of the Latino vote in their respective presidential races.

Additionally, Latinos are among the groups most susceptible to misinformation. “That is where I see the efforts to suppress the Latino vote,” Toledo remarked.

Rodrigo Dominguez-Villegas, co-director of research at the UCLA Latino Policy Institute (LPPI), emphasizes the importance of language in outreach. “While the majority of Latinos in the United States were born here, that doesn’t mean they don’t speak Spanish or that their family members don’t. Our data shows that half of all eligible voters in these states speak Spanish, whether they are bilingual or because they only speak that language,” he says.

Dominguez-Villegas argues that it’s crucial to remember Latinos in the electoral process, but outreach efforts must be more comprehensive. “It’s about creating pathways for civic participation beyond voting and investing in local organizations to cultivate leadership within Latino communities. Yes, voting is really important, but we also need to invest in other initiatives that extend beyond the ballot box,” he says.

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