Former President Donald Trump is set to announce the rebranding of his campaign outreach to the Latino community as he sees increased support of a previously elusive demographic.
Concretely, the presumptive GOP nominee will launch "Latino Americans for Trump" at a Las Vegas rally on Sunday. The change, which leaves behind "Latinos for Trump" seeks to convey that Latinos are Americans, Hispanic communications director for the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign Jaime Florez told NBC News.
"It's very important that we all understand that no matter where we're coming from, we're already American," Florez said. "Whether you're African American, Latino American, Asian American, European American, wherever you come from, we are all American."
The rally will mark the kickoff of ad campaigns in both English and Spanish. Florez didn't specify who will be tasked with coordinating the outreach and how much money will be spent.
The push for the demographic's vote picks up steam much later than President Joe Biden's, whose campaign has been carrying out such initiatives for months. In fact, the former president had taken heat in March for posting a Latino-oriented video from his 2020 campaign.
Featuring music from "Los 3 de Habana," the video is a succession of images with the caption "Ay por dios, yo voy a votar por Donald Trump" (Oh my god, I'm going to vote for Donald Trump). "The good life (for Trump), the economy (for Trump), do it for your family. Latinos for Donald Trump," are the tune's lyrics, which mixes images of daily Latino life with the former president.
Shortly after the video was published, Democrats reacted by pointing out that the video was old. "Trump's 'new' ad has a small detail... it's from his past campaign," reads a statement from the Biden campaign. "Trump's 'new' Latino-targeted ad is the same one from 2020. Perhaps he can't pay for a new one? Or is it simply that he doesn't care about Latinos?" the statement added.
Biden, who has been losing support from Latinos, launched a push of his own on that month with a series of campaign rallies, ads and interviews in Spanish media. "I need you back," Biden told a group of supporters in a Mexican restaurant in Phoenix, AP reported back then, saying that Latinos are the reason why he beat Donald Trump in 2020, and that he needs to emulate that support in November this year to win reelection.
Most of Biden's pitch aimed at presenting November's elections as a choice between him and Trump, rather than a referendum on his presidency. He highlighted that Latino unemployment is at low levels because of administration policies and said his rival "wants to get rid of all the programs we put together."
A March poll by The New York Times and Siena College shows the former president with a six percentage point lead over the current one, 46 to 40%. A more recent one from Bloomberg and Morning Consult focused on six battleground states showed that, when given the choice between only Biden and Trump, 45% of Latino respondents chose the former and 42% the latter, with 12% saying they didn't know.
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