Survey warns Latino voter outreach could fall short

By Michael Lyle

Nevada Current

More than half of Nevada registered Latino voters surveyed in a recent poll said they had not been contacted by any political party or campaign as of the end of August, according to a new report from UnidosUS.

UnidosUS released results Thursday from its 2024 Pre-Election Poll of the Hispanic Electorate, which surveyed 3,000 swing state voters, including 300 voters in Nevada, from Aug. 5-23 on key issues and races.

The group said one “extremely concerning” aspect of the results showed 53 percent of Latino voters polled in Nevada said they still hadn’t been contacted by a campaign or political party.

That was comparable to the poll’s results for all states. When asked “Has anyone from a political party, campaign or any other organization contacted you and asked you to register and/or vote in this election, whether by text, mail, email, or in-person?”, 55 percent of all Latino voters surveyed said no.

According to the survey, 25 percent of those polled in Nevada said they have been contacted by Democratic campaigns, versus 14 percent of people saying they’ve been contacted by Republicans. Some respondents also said they had been contacted about voting on ballot initiatives or by nonpartisan community organizations.

The poll showed that Latino “Nevada voters are fully engaged” and have “very strong opinions about the policies both parties embrace,” said Rafael Collazo, the director of Political Affairs with UnidosUS.

“Despite the track record of engagement, it’s sad the report lays out that nearly half of Latino voters still haven’t been contacted by local campaigns,” Collazo said.

Clarissa Martinez de Castro, the vice president of the Latino Vote Initiative with UnidosUS, said the low engagement begs the question about how much campaigns are investing in Latino voters, “which is an ever growing key electorate.”

“Why is it that this close to the election only 25 percent of Hispanic voters in Nevada are saying they have been contacted by Democrats and only 14 percent by Republicans?” she asked.

Campaigns, she added, have less time than they realize.

Though the election is Nov. 5, less than two months away, early voting starts Oct. 19. With more people being able to utilize vote by mail, the window to engage Latino voters is shrinking.

In response to the poll, Nevada State Democratic Party spokesperson Claudia Alvarado said the party has hired diverse staff, is hosting events “within the heart of the Latino community to meet voters where they are,” and offered campaign materials in Spanish to recruit Spanish-speaking volunteers.

With less than two months before election, she said the party “will continue to ramp up our outreach campaign.”

“Democrats never take any vote for granted and we’re working every day to grow our coalition and build a winning ground game that’s second to none to elect Democrats up and down the ballot,” she said in a statement to Nevada Current. “Latino voters are a key part of our winning coalition, and we are committed to earning every single vote by establishing a year-round substantial and sustained presence within Latino communities and running a multi-lingual field program that reaches voters in diverse communities.”

Emilia Pablo, Latino media press secretary for the Harris campaign, did not directly address the UnidosUS finding indicating Democratic outreach to Latino voters was falling short. But, Latinos are energized by the Vice President’s stances since she represents a “stark contrast from Donald Trump, who is proudly running on an anti-Latino platform,” Pablo said in a statement.

“Trump devastated Nevada’s economy and left Latino families in Nevada behind as president, and would go even further with his Project 2025 agenda to separate families, hurt union workers, and send costs soaring,” Pablo wrote.

According to the poll, 56 percent of Latino voters said they would vote for Harris over former President Donald Trump. The poll found 55 percent would vote for Rosen over her Republican opponent, Sam Brown.

Those advantages are slightly smaller than those enjoyed by Democrats in recent campaign cycles. In 2022, Democratic Sen. Catherine. Cortez Masto received 62 percent of the Latino vote, according to exit polls. And in the 2020 presidential race, exit polls indicate Joe Biden garnered 61 percent of Nevada Latino voters in his victory over Trump.

The UnidosUS results announced Thursday showed that 10 percent of Nevada Latino voters remain undecided about who they’ll vote for in the presidential, race while 21 percent were undecided in the Senate race.

Nearly 20 percent said this upcoming election would be their first time voting in a presidential election.

In addition to asking about candidate preferences for the presidential and Senate races, Latinos weighed in on top policy concerns and priorities.

Latino voters around the country, like all voters in virtually every poll this election cycle, ranked economic concerns, including higher prices and rising rents and the lack of affordable housing, as among the most pressing issues going into this election.

Immigration reform and border security was another priority, with voters favoring policies that provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. There was minimal support for mass deportation, a proposal Trump has promoted on the campaign trail and promised to carry out if elected.

Speakers on Thursday stressed the importance of Democrats winning Nevada if they want to win the presidency and Congress, and warned campaigns may be ignoring Latino voters at their own peril.

“We have the opportunity to create a political earthquake not just here in Nevada but nationally,” said Manny Santamaria, the Nevada state director for Latino outreach group Mi Familia Vota. “It can start in Nevada.

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Michael Lyle (MJ to some) is an award-winning journalist with Nevada Current. In addition to covering state and local policy and politics, Michael reports extensively on homelessness and housing policy. He graduated from UNLV with B.A. in Journalism and Media Studies and later earned an M.S. in Communications at Syracuse University.